the eye of the djinn. His estate, all of his possessions, and the wives he had loved so much; in a moment, they would all belong to the sultan. Sadly he nodded his head, clapped three times, and made it so.
“Now, I order you out of the sultan’s estate, djinn.” The vizier smiled, ordered the servants to tend to the residence in his absence, and returned to the sultan to claim his bride.
Shamefully the djinn walked out of the sultan’s estate and for three days and three nights continued without stopping, trying to get as far away from his old life as possible. When he could walk no more, he found a nice inviting branch in a large fig tree and fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning a young farmer was collecting figs from his trees when he accidentally stumbled upon the djinn. Startled by the disturbance, the djinn awoke angrily, lost his balance, and fell from the tree. The man dropped immediately to his knees and begged the djinn’s forgiveness. It was then that the djinn looked around and, seeing himself surrounded by fields of fig trees, realized he had mistaken the farmer’s orchard for simple woodland. He begged the farmer’s forgiveness, but the farmer would not hear of it.
“This is your tree now,” the farmer implored. “You have chosen it.”
“But it is your tree, in your orchard.”
“I have many trees in this orchard. This one is now yours for as long as you want it. Please forgive my awakening you. Is there any way I could repay this offense?”
It was then that the djinn noticed just how hungry he was. “Some food would be nice, if you can spare it.” The farmer nodded to this request. “But do not salt it or you will have offended me tenfold.” The farmer left and returned an hour later with a bowl of the day’s stew. The djinn sat beside the tree and hungrily devoured his meal. He motioned for the farmer to sit beside him. “Thank you for your kindness. You have given me food when I was hungry and a tree when I possessed nothing else in the world. How can I repay your kindness?”
“All I ask is that you spare me your wrath,” pleaded the farmer.
“I have no wrath for you, young man,” said the djinn.
“Then I have all I need.”
“But what is it that you want? What is it that you wish?”
“Wish?” The farmer blushed. “There is a girl in a nearby village who I care very much for.”
“And you wish that she loved you?” the djinn asked.
“No,” said the farmer. “She already loves me. But her father has promised her to another man.”
“Then you wish she was promised to you instead?”
“Yes,” the farmer replied.
“What else would you wish for?”
“I wish she could speak so I could know what she was thinking at all times.”
“She cannot speak?”
“No. Not since birth.”
“What then would be your third wish?”
“Third wish?” he asked. “What else could a man wish for? A home, a wife, and land is all a man needs. The rest he must earn for himself, or else it has no value.”
“No value?” the djinn asked, surprised.
“No. Gold a man hasn’t earned is just something shiny on a pile that means nothing to him. We are not the sum of worthless piles. Our worth is the work that went into them.”
The djinn smiled, impressed by the wise farmer. “What is your first wish?”
“I wish the fishmonger’s daughter was promised to me.”
The djinn nodded his head, clapped his hands, and made it so. “What is your second wish?”
“I wish the fishmonger’s daughter could speak.”
The djinn nodded his head, clapped his hands twice, and made it so. “Not only is she the loveliest woman in all the land, but now she has the sweetest voice as well. What is your third wish?”
“I wish happiness upon all those you visit equal to what you are about to bring me.”
At this the djinn paused. “What?” he asked.
“You have done so much for me just now. My only wish left is that you may continue to gift others with a fate as wondrous as mine.”
At this the djinn smiled, nodded, and clapped his hands three times, making it so.
At that very moment, miles away, the vizier grew very angry, for he knew what the djinn had done and he swore the djinn would pay. Furious, he called together the rest of the viziers and the kingdom’s wisest wizards and together they pored over