A DISPUTE IN ALEXANDRIA.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 697, 25 February 1933, Page 18 (Supplement)

A DISPUTE IN ALEXANDRIA.

In Alexandria, a city in the district of Romania (for there are twelve Alexandras which Alexander founded before he died), are streets occupied by Saracens who cook food and sell it, and a man will search the length of a street for the most tasty and the most delicate foodsttiffs,- just as in our own town he would search for silks. One Monday a Saracen cook whose name was Fabrac was standing at his kitchen door when a poor Saracen entered the kitchen with a loaf of bread in his hand. He had no money to buy anything from the cook. He held his loaf over the baking tins and caught the steam as it rose up. And as the bread became steeped in the steam which rose from the cooking he bit pieces off till he had eaten it all. Now, Fabrac the cook had not been selling well all the morning. He was beside himself with disappointment and vexation, and he seized the poor Saracen and said to him, “ Pay me for what you have taken from me.” The poor man replied, “ I have taken nothing from your kitchen except steam.” “ For what you have taken you shall pay me,” said Fabrac. So great was the dispute that news of it came to the Sultan. To settle this unprecedented case the Sultan gathered together his wise men and sent for the disputants. They related their quarrel. The Saracen wise men began to split hairs, and declared that the steam did not belong to the cook, setting forth many reasons. Others said, “ The steam arose from the cooking. It belonged to the cook and came from his property.” Finally the Sultan gave judgment. “As he lives by selling his goods,” he declared, “ and you and others buy from him, you as a fair man must fairly pay for his goods according to their value. If by his cooking he sells anything of a useful property you must pay with useful money. Now he has sold you steam, which is a useless part of his cooking, so you must ring two coins together, and then,” he concluded, with a smile, “ you wil have made him fair payment by the sound of the clinking coins.” RIDDLE-ME-REE. Why is the figure nine like a peacock?—Because without a tail it is nothing. Which bird ought to lift the heaviest weight?—The crane. Why does time fly?—Because so many people are trying to kill it. A bough of a tree blown down by a terrific gale smashed a window. What did the window say?—Tremendous! What is the difference between a policeman and the watch in his pocket?—The watch is on the policeman, and the policeman is on the watch.