I heard, O happy King, that the second old man with the two dogs said:
[ The Second Old Man’s Tale]
Demon, as for my story, these are the details. These two dogs are my brothers. When our father died, he left behind three sons and left us with some money. We then decided to use the money and buy each of us a house, though next to each other. It was one night during the winter, as each of us was doing our own thing, there is a beggar knocking on my first brother’s door. He opens the door, takes a quick glance at the beggar and asks: “Hello stranger. Who are you?” The beggar answered: “Please, rescue me. I didn’t eat or drink anything for 6 days and 6 nights straight. Winter winds are scratching my skin and the blood is flooding out. Please give me some food and let me stay for one night”. My brother doesn’t bother, shuts the door and minds his own business.
The beggar then goes to my second brother’s house. She knocks the door. My second brother opens the door, takes a quick glance at the beggar and asks: “Hello stranger. Who are you?” The beggar answered: “Please, rescue me. I didn’t eat or drink anything for 6 days and 6 nights straight. Winter winds are scratching my skin and the blood is flooding out. Please give me some food and let me stay just for one night”. Just as the first one, my second brother doesn’t bother, shuts the door and minds his own business.
The beggar, then knocks on my door. I open the door, takes a quick glance and the beggar and asks the same question. She tells me the same thing and I let her in. I cook her food, give her new clothes and tell her to rest until whenever she’s ready to leave tomorrow. I then go to sleep. Next morning, I wake up and realize the beggar has already left. I find a note on the dining table and it says: “I was the Guard sent from above to grant fortune for the kind and punish the pitiless. You has earn your prize with your pity, that you’d live prosperously forever. However, your two brothers show no pity for the poor beggar therefore were poisoned and transformed into dogs. To get them back into true forms, you must bring them to the highest mountain and look for somebody who can help”
Though granted the fortune, these are my brothers and I can’t see them like this. So I pack and while on the journey, I meet this merchant and these two other old men..
After Demon heard this story he was satisfied with the old man’s story. Demon left after he heard all three old man’s story. The second man continued his journey. Although the way to get to the mountain was really long and the weather was cold, he went to the mountains without rest with the intention of returning his older brothers back to normal. When they reached the middle of the mountain, two big guards were guarding the door. The old man said, “I came here for these two dogs to return as a human.” Then a guard opened the door and led me to a place where there was a woman. She was the Guard who old man helped. She promised to return her brothers back to humans as promised. She also gave old men the wealth for the rest of his life and promised that she will always near him and help him.
As soon as he returned home, the old man began to build his house larger. His brothers were ones who turned into people again by their younger brother, but they jealous of their brother’s wealth. Thus they decided to kill their brother. On a quiet night, the old man’s brothers broke into his house while he was sleeping, and pulled out all the money and gold, and then set off the fire. When the fire spread out, the old man woke up. He thought he will die like this but the Guard came out and took the old man out of the house. The Guard found out that two brothers had sought his brother’s wealth and tried to kill him. She cursed them and turned them into snakes.
And the tale continues:
However, happy King, the other brother also spoke up and told what had happened to him during that trading venture. He told his brother that he had arrived at a remote land called “Trittorias” where people were well known for their ability of smart trading, generosity, and honesty. And the brother, one of the very dogs the second old man had, said: “Oh brother! I will relate to you my misfortune and tell you how after I almost had my fortune tripled disgrace came my way.” To what the second old man answered, “But, brother of mine! Why now? Why interrupting me as I tell our story to the Sultan of the demons?” The brother let his dog ears and tail drop and told the second old man, “brother because I think it’s necessary that we let the presents know that we did not lose our fortunes for being bad traders, but because life and God Almighty turned his back on me and our other brother.”
Then, oh happy king! The demon intervened, and said to the second old man, “You must let this man tell him his tale, for if I don’t know his tale yours will be incomplete, and curiosity will torment me.” The brother accepted then, and the dog continued his tale. He explained, that after arriving at this strange land, people were very kind to him, offered him shelter and entertained him for months. During 3 months he focused on learning the principles of the trading model of these masters. However, when his turn to trade came, he showed that he had an innate gift and that he had mastered the skill in only a few months.
This, of course, woke the envy of all the young pupils of trading who then plotted against him and united forces to misguide him into a deal that would bring him great consequences with his trading master. The brother, one of the very dogs, said “brother, I have never seen such a perfectly-evil plan. They managed to misguide my instincts, and drove me to make the terrible mistake to trade for the stones of onyx of the temple of my master.” He then related how he was disposed of all the wealth he had created to be able to buy them back and be forgiven by his master. But he was exiled by the master and sent home in a boat of slaves without a single dinar.