Wednesday, September 20

this one i read recently

There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.
Then the merchant went down to the market place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

the above story is jeffrey archer right?....its a great short story....

Anonymous said...

:)

thank u

zzz-writer said...

tarini you are always welcome :)

zzz-writer said...

kartik, yes this is from jeffery archer's 'to cut a story short'
but this one is not his piece but one he picked up from one of the arabic folklores.

zzz-writer said...

oops correction: the title is 'to cut a long story short'

Anonymous said...

hmmm...no more posts?

Himavan said...

Hey I am a good fan of Jeffrey archer!..though I havent read this particular novel of him...Good one!
Thanks for stopping by my blog!

zzz-writer said...

yeah jeffery archer has a unique style but then who knows...only he knows how much of it is original!!! btw, another of his short stories collection is out, for which interestingly the writer himself claims: he found the ideas while he was in jail for perjury