In Baghdad, there lived a merchant named Kalif who sold richly embroidered clothes that he had brought from Mosul or Shiraz in exchange for rose oil that he sold there.
One day as he was travelling, he heard an animal roaring and the stamping of horses’ hooves! He ran forward and saw a richly dressed rider trying to control a horse that was being attacked by a panther! Kalif killed the panther, saving the horse and its rider. The rider asked Kalif to come with him so that he might reward him.
Kalif didn’t want the reward, but he courteously followed the rider. They reached his camp where many men rushed out to bow to him. Then Kalif realised that the rider was the Shah of the tribe.
The Shah took him into a tent and asked him to select one of the five chests kept there: golden, jewelled, silver, copper and iron. Kalif said that he only wanted something to remember the Shah and he took the iron chest.
The Shah told him that he had taken the most valuable chest. Inside it, there were two rare stones: a lapis lazuli and a diamond. If he tied the lapis lazuli into his turban, he would know everything in the world and become powerful. If he rubbed the diamond, it would give him any wealth he wished for.
Kalif never spoke about the gifts but rumours reached Baghdad and people began to come to see the iron chest. Kalif’s business prospered as more customers came to his shop.
After many years, Kalif died. His eldest son, Ali Hatim, took the lapis lazuli so that he might become powerful and marry Fatima, the Caliph’s beautiful daughter. But he boasted of his knowledge in the marketplace and people threw things at him till he ran away, leaving behind his turban with the lapis lazuli.
The second son, Ali Hassuf, took the diamond and went to the woods. He rubbed it and got twenty sacks of gold and loaded them on his donkey. But some robbers had seen him and they stole all his gold and clothes, including the diamond.
The youngest son, Yussuf, got the empty chest and was happy. One day, a money-lender saw the chest and told the Caliph about its great powers. The Caliph called Yussuf and presented him gold and silken robes. But when he learnt that the chest was empty, he realised that he had found the best person in the world who was not greedy at all. So, he married his daughter Fatima to Yussuf.
