Once upon a time, there lived a chief named Ali Ben Ahmed and his tribe in the desert of Arabia. They encamped on the trackless sand. For months, they did not see any stranger. One evening, however, little Zuleika, the chief’s daughter, saw someone riding her way from the south. She ran to tell her father. The chief came out of his tent and saw a stranger. The stranger said that the great Sheikh Ben Nedi would visit their tribe the next day. There was excitement in the entire camp. Everyone started collecting and preparing gifts for Sheikh Ben Nedi. But little Zuleika sat alone, weeping, because she had no gift for the Sheikh. Zuleika went and sat on a great stone near the well and cried. All of a sudden, a misty white figure appeared out of the well and took the shape of a beautiful veiled woman. It was the good fairy of the well.
The Gift
The fairy asked Zuleika not to weep and said that she would find the gift the next morning at the very spot where her tears were falling. Then the fairy faded away. Zuleika ran back to her tent. The next morning, she hurried out into the sand to find the gift which she was to get for the Sheikh that day. Zuleika reached the well and stopped in wonder. Where yesterday there was nothing but bare sand, today there stood a tall tree with a cluster of brownish fruit. In the afternoon, the caravan of the great Sheikh Ben Nedi arrived. Everyone brought his gifts and gave them to the Sheikh. The chief led Ben Nedi to the well where the date palm grew and told him how the wonder tree had grown up miraculously during the night. Hearing everything, Ben Nedi softly exclaimed, “This is the most precious gift of all, for it springs from the desire of the heart.”
