Once upon a time there was a poor young man. His parents were old and ill. So, he collected wood and sold it at the market so that they would not go hungry. 

One day there was a terrible storm. The caliph of the land ordered: “No one is allowed to leave the house.”

The young man heard about this and thought desperately: “What are we going to eat if I can't collect and sell wood?”

Finally, he crept out of the house towards the forest. 

The caliph was looking out of his palace into the distance when he saw the young man walking towards the forest. He called the guards to him and said: "There's a young man out there in the storm. Bring him here!"

The guards fetched the man and brought him before the caliph. He asked: “Why didn't you obey my prohibition?”

“Sir,” replied the young man, “I have been lent something and am working to return it.”

The caliph was amazed at the clever answer. He had a whole sack of wheat given to him and then said, "Go home with it. If I send you a donkey, pluck it like a chicken."

The young man nodded and went away satisfied. But the vizier, who had heard everything, asked, "Sir, what did he mean when he said: I have been lent something and am working to give it back?"

The caliph replied angrily: "You are my vizier and do not understand the words of a young man? I give you three days to find out the meaning of these words. Otherwise you will lose your head."

The vizier was startled. 

He went home and pondered all day, but found no solution. On the second day, he went to the caliph's advisors. But they couldn't find a solution either. On the third day, the vizier was so desperate that he took a mule and rode to the poor young man's hut.

He knocked and the young man opened the door.

"You must explain to me the words you said to the caliph. Otherwise I will die in three days!" the vizier begged.

The boy pointed to his sick, weak parents and said, “What will you give me if I tell you?”

The vizier wore a valuable fez. He offered it to the young man. But he shook his head. The vizier added his valuable cloak. But the young man shook his head.

Finally, the vizier slipped out of his trousers, added his expensive shirt, his jewelry and finally his shoes. He also had to promise the mule. Then the young man said: "My parents are very poor. They worked hard year after year so that I wouldn't go hungry. Now they are old and sick, and I am working to give back the good things they gave me in my childhood. That is the meaning of my words".

The vizier waited until it was dark, then slipped into the palace almost naked. 

The next morning, the young man led the mule with the vizier's clothes and jewelry to the palace and said, “This is a gift for the caliph.”

When the caliph saw the mule and recognized the clothes, he laughed. He had the young man come to him and said, "I can see that you are clever, because you have understood my instruction that you should pluck a donkey like a chicken. Hide yourself here and wait until I call you."

When the whole court was assembled, the caliph called the vizier to him and asked, “Now, explain to me the young man's words, otherwise you will lose your head.”

The vizier bowed and recounted what the young man had told him.

“Where did you find the answer to the riddle?” the caliph wanted to know.

“In an old book,” claimed the vizier.

The caliph then sent for the young man with the mule and the vizier's clothes. The vizier turned deathly pale and before the guards could grab him, he was on his way.

The caliph said to the poor man: "You shall be my vizier and advisor from today on. Bring your sick parents here so that they want for nothing."

So the poor young man became the caliph's vizier and lived in happiness and contentment for a long time.

Version Djamila Jaenike, d'après : S. Karig, T. Bodrogi, G. Dubovitz, Le cœur des étoiles, Budapest 1972, sous le titre : Le bûcheron et le calife Harun Al-Raschid , Übersetzung ins Englische: Lysander Jaenike ©Mutabor