ABU RETURN TO LIFE

One day Abu’s wife asked for some money to buy silk for a new dress. Abu at once opened his
money box. “Ho!” he cried. “The caliph’s gold is almost gone!”

Money was something Abu had not worried about for more than a year. He and his wife had
lived well, and he had been very kind to his old mother. But now he was nearly out of gold. He knew he
would have to ask the caliph for more. This he did not want to do.

“I have it!” Abu said to his wife. “Here’s a way we can get a hundred gold pieces, and some silk
as well. You go to the caliph. Tell him I have died. He will give you money for a funeral, and silk to
wrap the body!”

Now, Abu’s wife was almost as much of a wag as Abu himself. She rubbed her eyes to make
them red. Then she pulled her hair down over her face. Abu laughed as he watched her walk the few
steps to the palace. He could hardly wait for her to return with the money and the silk.

She returned quickly- but, instead of gold and silk, she brought the caliph and the royal doctor.
Abu saw them coming. What could he do? He was supposed to be dead. Working quickly, he put some
ashes on his face, so the skin would look lifeless and gray. Just before the door opened, he lay down on
the floor and folded his hand across his chest.

“There he lies,” said Abu’s wife. “Alas, his life went out like a candle.”

“Dead as a doornail,” said the doctor. “Poor fellow. The world will not be the same without
him.”

“Yes,” came the sad voice of the caliph, “when the gods had made our Abu, they threw away the
mold.”

A teardrop slowly made its way down the caliph’s nose, trembled on the tip, and fell to the floor.
He told Abu’s wife not to worry about the money for the funeral. He said he would send some gold and
silk at once. Then he returned to the palace.

Abu had not finished laughing when he thought of going on with the joke. This time things were
to be different, Abu would go to the palace himself. He would find the grand vizier. Abu’s wife, the
grand vizier’s daughter, would be the dead person. Now it was Abu’s turn to rub his eyes and mess up his
hair. On the way to the palace, he began to cry and shout like a madman.

Soon the grand vizier, his doctor, and his ten guards were hurrying with Abu to the house. They
entered to find Abu’s wife on the floor. Her face was gray with ashes.

“There she lies,” said Abu. “Alas, her life went out like a candle.”

“Dead as a doornail,” remarked the doctor. “This old world will never be the same without her.”

“Yes,” agreed the grand vizier. “After they made her, they threw away the mold.” With tears in
his eyes, he promised to do all he could to help Abu. He would start by sending some gold and silk as
soon as he returned to the palace.

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When the grand vizier had left the house, Abu and his wife howled with joy. “Ho! Jolly good!” Abu
cried. He had the next joke all planned. “Now listen, when we get the silk, we will wrap ourselves up
like a couple of dead bodies. Then we will go right to the palace to share our laughter.”

But there was one thing Abu had forgotten. The grand vizier, to get the gold and silk, would have
to go to the caliph. While Abu and his wife were laughing, the grand vizier was entering the caliph’s
throne room.

“Protector of the People,” the grand vizier said. “I bring bad news. The wife of Abu the Wag is
dead.”

“What!” cried the caliph. “No, you have it wrong. It is Abu who is dead. I have seen his body
myself!”

“But Abu lives!” cried the grand vizier. “I have just left him. He was alive and well. But his
wife lay on the floor, still as a stone and cold as a clay.”

Soon Abu saw the caliph and the grand vizier marching toward the house. What had gone
wrong? What could Abu and his wife do now?

Abu thought fast. “Ho!” he said. “We will both play dead! Hurry!”

The neighbors had now become interested. Twenty or thirty people followed the caliph and the
grand vizier into Abu’s house. The room was silent for a time. Then the caliph and the grand vizier told
each other many wise things. They spoke sadly of candles, and doornails, and molds. But there was one
question they could not answer. Who had died first? Each said that he had seen a different one alive, and
the other dead. Finally, the caliph turned to the neighbors.

“I will give a thousand pieces of gold,” he said, “to anyone who can tell me who died first.”

When Abu heard these words, he leaped to his feet. “Ho!” he cried. “It was I who was the first to
die!”

No one had ever seen the caliph laugh louder, harder, or longer. He gave Abu the Wag a
thousand gold pieces for answering the question. He gave him another thousand for thinking of a good
joke. He gave him a third thousand for being too polite to say he was out of money. And he never let
Abu run out of money again.

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