Outside the shop of a tailor in Kashgar sat a little hunchback, singing and playing a tambourine. The tailor took him home so that his beloved wife, too, might enjoy the music. They invited the little hunchback to share their dinner; his wife served fish. Unluckily, a fishbone stuck in the hunchback’s throat and he choked to death! The tailor and his wife were terrified of the police! So, they took the body to a doctor’s house and left it there, telling a maid to ask the doctor to care for the sick man. When the doctor came out, he fell over the hunchback and found him dead. He thought he had killed him! He and his wife put the body near the storehouse of their neighbour, who supplied oil and butter to the Sultan. ‘He will not be punished, for he knows the Sultan!’ thought the doctor.
The Sultan’s Justice
The supplier thought the man outside the storehouse was a thief and hit him. With a light, he saw that the hunchback was dead. Frightened, he carried him to the market and propped him up against the door of a shop. A drunken merchant, swaying down the street, knocked the hunchback down. Both fell and were picked up by the night guard! “You have killed him!” the guard said and arrested the merchant. In the morning, he was taken to the court. The judge ordered the merchant to be executed. The news of the execution spread. The supplier and the doctor came to stop the injustice. Each one said, “I killed the hunchback!” But the tailor explained how the hunchback had choked on the fishbone and died. The Sultan called all the fellows and they reached the palace. Hearing what had actually happened, the Sultan asked that this be written down in his history and pardoned the four men.
