When her husband next went away for one day, she told on slave to turn
under the bird's cage a hand-mill; another to throw water down from
above the cage, and a third to take a mirror and turn it in front of
its eyes, from left to right by the light of a candle. The slaves did
this for part of the night, and did it very well.
The next day when the husband came back he asked the parrot what he had
seen. The bird replied, "My good master, the lightning, thunder and
rain disturbed me so much all night long, that I cannot tell you what I
have suffered."
The husband, who knew that it had neither rained nor thundered in the
night, was convinced that the parrot was not speaking the truth, so he
took him out of the cage and threw him so roughly on the ground that he
killed him. Nevertheless he was sorry afterwards, for he found that
the parrot had spoken the truth.
"When the Greek king," said the fisherman to the genius, "had finished
the story of the parrot, he added to the vizir, "And so, vizir, I shall
not listen to you, and I shall take care of the physician, in case I
repent as the husband did when he had killed the parrot." But the
vizir was determined. "Sire," he replied, "the death of the parrot was
nothing. But when it is a question of the life of a king it is better
to sacrifice the innocent than save the guilty. It is no uncertain
thing, however. The physician, Douban, wishes to assassinate you. My
zeal prompts me to disclose this to your Majesty. If I am wrong, I
deserve to be punished as a vizir was once punished." "What had the
vizir done," said the Greek king, "to merit the punishment?" "I will
tell your Majesty, if you will do me the honour to listen," answered
the vizir."
The Story of the Vizir Who Was Punished