ther for safe
keeping, as he might be inspired, during Hussein's pilgrimage, to
spend it on some charitable purpose. After a time he thought of a
kindly Jew who was his neighbor, and decided to leave his savings in
the hands of this man, to whom Allah had been good, seeing that his
possessions were great. After mature thought he decided not to put
temptation in the way of his neighbor. He therefore secured a jar, at
the bottom of which he placed a small bag containing his surplus of
wealth, and filled it with olives. This he carried to his neighbor,
and begged him to take care of it for him. Ben Moise of course
consented, and Hussein Agha departed on his pilgrimage, contented.

On his return from the Holy Land, Hussein, now a Hadji, repaired to
Ben Moise and asked for his jar of olives, and at the same time
presented Ben Moise with a rosary of Yemen stones, in recognition of
the service rendered him in the safe keeping of the olives, which, he
said, were exceptionally palatable. Ben Moise thanked him, and Hadji
Hussein departed with his jar, well satisfied.

During the absence of Hussein Agha, it happened that Ben Moise had
some distinguished visitors, to whom, as is the Eastern custom, he
served raki. Unfortunately, however, he had no meze (appetizer) to
offer, as is also the custom in the East. Ben Moise bethought him of
the olives and immediately went to the cellar, opened the jar, and
extracted some of them, saying: "Olives are not rare; Hussein will
never know the difference if I replace them."

The olives were found excellent, and Ben Moise again and again helped
his friends to them. Great was his surprise when he found that instead
of olives, he brought forth a bag containing a quantity of gold. Ben
Moise could not understand this phenomenon, but appropriated the gold
and held his peace.

Arriving home, poor Hussein Agha was distracted to find that his jar
contained nothing but olives. Vainly did he protest to Ben Moise.

"My friend," he would reply, "you gave me the jar, saying it contained
olives. I believed you and kept the jar safe for you. Now you say that
in the jar you had put some money together with the olives; perhaps
you did, but is not that the jar you gave me? If, as you say, there
was gold in the jar and it is now gone, all I can say is, the stronger
has overcome the weaker, and that in this case the gold has either
been converted into olives or into oil. What can I do? The jar you
gave me I r