THE FORTY THIEVES . 195

am obliged to you for it, and return it with
thanks.”

As soon as Ali Baba’s wife was gone, Cassim’s
looked at. the bottom of the measure, and was
in inexpressible surprise to find a piece of
gold stuck to it. Envy immediately possessed
her breast. “What!” said she, “has Ali Baba
gold so plentiful as to measure it? Where has
that poor wretch got all this wealth?” Cassim,
her husband, was not at home, but at his count-
ing-house, which he left always in the evening.
His wife waited for him, and thought the time
an age; so great was her impatience to tell
him the circumstance, at which she guessed he
would be as much surprised as herself.

When Cassim came home, his wife said to
him, “Cassim, I know you think yourself rich,
but you are much mistaken. Ali Baba is in-
finitely richer than you; he does not count
his money, but measures it.” Cassim desired
her to explain the riddle, which she did, by
telling him the stratagem she had’ used to
make the discovery, and showed him the piece
of money, which was so old that they could not
tell in what prince’s reign it was coined.

Cassim, instead of being pleased, conceived a
base envy at his brother’s prosperity; he could