The man fell on his feet begging for mercy. Then he jumped up and ran outside the circle of camels. He pulled up a stone and came back with my leather bag of gold.” Give it to the traveller,” shouted the Sheik. The man put the bag into my hands, and I found that all the eighty pieces were in it. Then the Sheik ordered two men to beat the thief. After a minute, I begged mercy for him; and, at my host’s command, the men let him go.

I was eager to know how the Sheik found the thief. The next day I asked him to explain. He looked at me and said,” You must not tell my men.” “Certainly not,” I said.

“Well, yesterday when I was in the tent I took some mint and put it in water. When the water began to smell like mint, I put the donkey’s tail into the water. The tail, too, smelled like mint. That evening, you remember, each man went into the tent and pulled the donkey’s tail. All of them, except the thief, pulled the tail. His hand alone had no smell of mint upon it.”