“King Yunan, who was beginning to feel angry, replied, ‘You are right, vizier. The sage may well be what you say and may have come to destroy me. He who has cured me with something to hold can kill me with something to smell'” (The Sixteenth Night, 588).
“If I don’t take care of him soon, let me perish like the king who was deceived by a merchant.” The vizier asked King Yunan, “What is their story?” King Yunan replied:
[The Tale of the King and the Merchant]
Vizier, there was once a king who reigned over one of the great Byzantine cities. He was loved by all the men, women, and children of his city. Everyone under his reign was more than fairly treated. There have been multiple accounts of him giving gifts and endowments to those in his realm. Then a wandering merchant entered into the king’s palace, offering merchandise and trading goods from far off lands. The king welcomed this stranger and insisted that he stayed as a guest for the night, and in return he would provide the merchant with two thousand dinars along with gifts he can trade. The merchant agreed to stay the night and said to himself, “This king is so willing to give me these gifts, that I may be able to rid myself this life of a merchant.”
The next morning, after receiving the king’s gifts, the merchant left the palace. Just outside of the city, the merchant found a large tree, buried all of his possessions, collected some herbs and waited until nightfall. Once the moon reached its peak in the clouds, the merchant rushed back to the king’s palace. He arrived disheveled and said to the king, “On my journey to the next city, two thieves robbed me of all my merchandise and even took the dinars you so generously gave me!” The king shook his head in disgust of the robbers and said, “Please merchant, stay with me and my wife in my palace. You will never get robbed here for as long as I am king.” The merchant replied, “I am so grateful for your generosity Your Majesty, I am forever in debt to you.”
A year went by with the merchant still residing in the king’s palace. During that year, the merchant became the king’s confidant and vizier. One day when the king was sitting on his throne, the merchant came in to offer the king some tea and said, “About a year ago when those thieves robbed me of all my possessions, the one thing they didn’t take from me is these Indian tea leaves. They are very hard to come by, but I traded four robes of honor for them. I’ve brewed them into this tea and would like you to have some, Your Majesty, to show you my gratitude for helping me during that time.” The king happily drank the merchant’s tea, but little did he know that he was consuming poisonous herbs the merchant harvested before returning back to the king’s palace. The merchant watched as the king suffocated on his throne. So you see vizier, to not end up like that king, I must have the sage dealt with.
“Then the king asked the vizier, ‘My vizier and good counselor, how should I deal with him?'” (The Sixteenth Night, 588).
Nicely done–the inset story ties neatly to the tale of King Yunan. (I also like that the scheming vizier, here, asks for a story; in the world of the Thousand and One Nights, no one, it seems, can resist the prospect of being told a tale).