It is said that a mouse once lived in the house of a rich and important merchant. One night a flea went for shelter to that merchant’s bed, where he found a soft body. As he was thirsty, he drank from the man’s blood. The merchant, in pain, woke from his sleep, sat up and called to his maids and a number of his servants. They hurried up to him and set to work looking for the flea, who, in turn, realizing what was happening, fled away. He came across the mouse’s hole and went in, but when the mouse saw him, she asked: ‘What has made you come to me, when you are not of the same nature or the same species as I, and you cannot be sure that I will not treat you roughly, attack you or harm you?’ The flea said to her: ‘I have fled into your house, escaping certain death, in order to seek refuge with you. There is nothing that I covet here; you will not have to leave because of any harm that I might do you and I hope to be able to reward you with all kinds of benefits for the service that you are doing me. You will be thankful when you discover what these words of mine will bring about.’ When the mouse heard what the flea had to say, she said: ‘If things are as you say, then you can rest here in peace. The rain of security will fall on you; you will only experience what will bring you joy and nothing will happen to you that will not also happen to me. I offer you my friendship. Feel no regret for the opportunity you have lost to suck the merchant’s blood and don’t be sorry for the nourishment that you used to get from him. Content yourself with what you can find to live on, as that will be safer for you. The following lines of poetry that I once heard were written by a preacher, who said:
I have followed the path of contentment and solitude,
And passed my time according to circumstance,
With a crust of bread and water to drink,
Coarse salt and shabby clothes.
If God grants me prosperity, well and good;
If not, I am content with what He gives.’
And passed my time according to circumstance,
With a crust of bread and water to drink,
Coarse salt and shabby clothes.
If God grants me prosperity, well and good;
If not, I am content with what He gives.’
When the flea heard what the mouse had to say, he said: ‘Sister, I have listened to your advice; I shall do what you tell me, as I cannot disobey you, and I shall follow this virtuous course until the end of my days.’ ‘Good intentions are enough for true friendship,’ replied the mouse. The two became firm friends and after that the flea would go to the merchant’s bed at night but would only take enough blood for his needs, while by day he would shelter in the mouse’s hole.
It happened that one night the merchant brought home a large number of dinars. He began to turn them over and over and, hearing the sound, the mouse put her head out of her hole and started to gaze at the dinars, until the merchant put them under a pillow and fell asleep. The mouse then said to the flea: ‘Don’t you see the chance that we have been given and what an enormous bit of luck this is? Can you think of a plan to allow us to get as many of these as we want?’ ‘It’s no use trying to get hold of something unless you can do it,’ said the flea. ‘If you’re not strong enough, then weakness will lead you into danger and, even if you use all your cunning, you will not get what you want, like the sparrow that picks up the grain but falls into the trapper’s net and is caught. You don’t have the strength to take the dinars and carry them out of the house, and neither have I. I couldn’t even lift a single one of them. So do what you want about them yourself.’
The mouse said: ‘I have made seventy ways out of this hole of mine from which I can leave if I want and I have prepared a safe place for treasures. If you can get the merchant out of the room by some means, then I’m sure that I can succeed if fate helps me.’ ‘I’ll undertake to get him out,’ said the flea, and he then went to the merchant’s bed and gave him a fearful bite, such as he had never experienced before. The flea then took refuge in a place of safety and, although the merchant woke up and looked for him, he didn’t find the flea and so went back to sleep on his other side. The flea then bit him even more savagely, and in his agitation the merchant left his bedroom and went out to a bench by the house door, where he slept without waking until morning. The mouse then set about moving the dinars until there were none left, and in the morning the merchant was left to suspect everyone around him.
The fox then said to the crow: ‘You must know, O far-sighted, intelligent and experienced crow, that I have only told you this story so that you may get the reward for your kindness to me just as the mouse was rewarded for her kindness to the flea. You can see how he repaid her and gave her the most excellent of rewards.’ The crow replied: ‘The doer of good has the choice of doing good or not, as he wants, but it is not obligatory to do good to someone who tries to attach himself to you by cutting you off from others. This is what will happen to me if I befriend you, who are my enemy. You are a wily schemer, fox; creatures of your kind cannot be counted on to keep their word and no one can rely on those who are not to be trusted to do that. I heard recently that you betrayed a companion of yours, the wolf, and that you schemed against him until, thanks to your treacherous wiles, you brought about his death. You did this in spite of the fact that he was of the same species as you and you had been his companion for a long time. You did not spare him, so how can I trust in your sincerity? If this is how you act with a friend of your own race, what will you do with an enemy of a different species? Your position in regard to me is like that of the falcon with the birds of prey.’ ‘How was that?’ asked the fox. THE CROW REPLIED:
