Thousand: Three Hundred Sixty-One

off as punishment for stealing. I was in a Moslem country, just traveling through, you know, and a beggar woman stood accused of stealing fruit from the bazaar. When I saw her dragged before the man with the sword, I stepped up to them, saying it was not she who had stolen the fruit. Perhaps no one had stolen anything. She was a beggar, people could be generous, why shouldn’t she be carrying a bagful of dates and dried apples? There was a witness, the apple vendor, who insisted differently. He did not look like a reliable man to me,