Caliph Harun-al-Rashid saw the old blind beggar on the street and stopped to ask him how he lost his sight. The man was named Baba Abdullah. The old man said he had been orphaned when he was very young, but slowly he began to learn to trade and soon became the owner of eighty camels. He lived in Baghdad and one day, he had taken merchandise to India. Returning to Balasore, he stopped to graze the camels. Just then a dervish, who was also on his way to Balasore, came and sat beside him. Abdullah shared his meal with the dervish. Then he told Abdullah about a vast amount of treasure not far away. Abdullah was eager to find it. The dervish led him to it and Abdullah’s eyes were dazzled! He and the dervish collected gold and jewels and he saw the dervish putting a small box into his robes.
Blind Greed
Abdullah loaded the eighty camels and gave forty camels to the dervish. Abdullah turned towards Baghdad and the dervish went towards camels. But then, Abdullah was overcome by blind greed. He argued that a dervish had no need for treasure or camels. He was a saintly man who would give everything away, whereas they would be useful for Abdullah. He persuaded the dervish to return all the camels. Then he asked for the box. Reluctantly the dervish gave it, saying, “It has an ointment, which, applied to the left eye, will show you where treasures are. But if applied to the right eye, you will be blinded.” Abdullah tried it on the left eye and saw treasure. Then he applied it to the right eye and became blind! The camels and treasure were useless and he gave them to the dervish. Since then he had become a beggar in Baghdad. The compassionate Caliph gave him enough to live comfortably.
