From the Arabian Nights

“I found myself in a kind of paradise, home to sweet smelling flowers, delicious low hanging fruit, and birds singing the praises of the one who is eternal. A mossy bank was my pillow for the night, by the side of a stream. In the morning when I awoke I saw, sitting not far from me, an old man dressed in a skirt of palm leaves. He made signs, as if begging me to pick him up on my shoulders and carry him across the water. I thought to myself:

“I may profit in Heaven if I help this old man,” and I did as he asked, and let him climb onto my shoulders. I waded across the water and knelt down to let him clamber back onto the ground. But he did not leave my shoulders. Instead he wrapped his leathery legs around my neck, half strangling me. I was finding it hard to breath, and for a moment the world went black to me and I lost consciousness. I came round a few moments later, and felt the old man, still on my shoulders, now kicking my sides. The pain forced me to rise again to my feet. Then he pointed for me to take him among the fruit trees, so that he could reach up and grab whatever he wanted to take and eat. If ever I refused to do his bidding, he beat or strangled me into submission.

For some days, I carried my burden around the island. At night I slept with him, still entwined around my neck. There was nothing I could do to shake him off, try as I might. I was growing weaker by the day. I began to curse my own kindness.

“By Allah! As long as I live I shall never do a free favour for another man again! My only thought was to help this fellow, and he has repaid me with suffering.”