Week 5 Story: The Merchant and His Wife

As twilight fell just like any other clear night, Khojisteh approached the parrot with despair in his eyes. He asked the parrot, "every night I come to you asking when will be my time to meet my lover, and every day I sit here with patience." The parrot admired the girl listening to his stories every night. If this was the night she was to meet her lover, then she should go. But at first, she should listen to the parrot's story about the merchant and his wife before she made her decision. So she listened...

In a city far away, there was a very rich merchant and his wife. The merchant often went away for business far away. One day, he left with no telling of when his return would be. His wife waited and waited and eventually got very lonely. She did something very unexpected and unheard of but since she was wealthy, she called upon a companion to keep her company until her husband returned. The night the companion came to the wife, the merchant returned to find them in bed together. The merchant was very offended; he loved his wife very much and only wanted to provide a good life for her. He left her for good and went to find a mistress that would keep him company for the meantime.

Author's note: The original story had the merchant leaving his wife for business and when he came back, he couldn't get into his own house. He found lodging somewhere else and called for a mistress. The mistress he got ended up being his wife. I changed the story so that the wife ended up getting a mistress of her own and instead of him being her husband, I had her husband find her with another man to make it more interesting.

The Merchant and His Wife by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi

The Merchant. Source: Wikimedia Commons