A shrewd man,
being informed of this, said to the astrologer: "What do you know of the
heavenly bodies, when you cannot tell what goes on in your own
house?"[10]--Last, and perhaps best of all, is this one: I was
hesitating about concluding a bargain for a house, when a Jew said: "I
am an old householder in that quarter; inquire of me the description of
the house, and buy it, for it has no fault." I replied: "Excepting that
you are one of the neighbours!"
[10] There is a similar story to this in one of our old
English jest-books, _Tales and Quicke Answeres_, 1535,
as follows (I have modernised the spelling): As an
astronomer [i.e. an astrologer] sat upon a time in the
market place, and took upon him to divine and to show
what their fortunes and chances should be that came to
him, there came a fellow and told him (as it was indeed)
that thieves had broken into his house, and had borne
away all that he had. These tidings grieved him so sore
that, all heavy and sorrowfully, he rose up and went his
way. When the fellow saw him do so, he said: "O thou
foolish and mad man! goest thou about to divine other
men's matters, and art ignorant of thine own?"
III
ANECDOTES AND APHORISMS FROM THE "GULISTAN," WITH ANALOGUES--CONCLUSION.
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