The Two Friends (1)

Sidi El-Marouf and Sidi Abd-el-Tadu were travelling in company. Toward
evening they separated to find a resting-place. Sidi Abd-el-Tadu said to
his friend:

"Let us say a prayer, that God may preserve us from the evil which we have
never committed."

Sidi El-Marouf answered, "Yes, may God preserve us from the evil that we
have not done!"

They went toward the houses, each his own way. Sidi El-Marouf presented
himself at a door. "Can you entertain a traveller?"

"You are welcome," said a woman to him. "Enter, you may remain for the
night."

Night came. He took his supper. The woman spread a mat on the floor and he
went to sleep. The woman and her husband slept also. When all was quiet,
the woman got up, took a knife, and killed her husband. The next day at
dawn she began to cry:

"He has killed my husband!"

The whole village ran up to the house and seized the stranger. They bound
him, and everyone brought wood to burn the guilty man.

Sidi Abd-el-Tadu came also, and saw his friend in tears. "What have you
done?" he asked.

"I have done no evil," answered Sidi El-Marouf.

"Did I not tell you yesterday," said Sidi Abd-el-Tadu, "that we would say
the prayer that God should preserve us from the evil we had never
committed? And now you will be burned for a crime of which you are
innocent!"

Sidi El-Marouf answered him, "Bring the woman here."

"Did he really kill your husband?" asked Sidi Abd-el-Tadu.

"He killed him," she replied.

There was a bird on a tree nearby. Sidi Abd-el-Tadu asked the bird. The
bird answered:

"It was the woman who killed her husband. Feel in her hair and you will
find the knife she used."

They searched her hair and found the knife still covered with blood, which
gave evidence of the crime. The truth was known and innocence was defended.
God avenged the injustice.