The Red Lantern

A long time ago, in Marrakech, there lived a poor, lowly sweet seller called Kadour. He was not very successful, and with each passing day he lost money and became poorer. Finally, the time came when he could not even afford the honey to make the sweets. But he was too ashamed to take up begging.

'I shall leave Marrakech', he said to himself, 'and cross the Atlas Mountains. Perhaps I shall find better luck in another place.'

Kadour set off on his journey, carrying the only thing he owned in the world. It was a small lantern, of the kind they made in Marrakech, fashioned out of tin and red glass.

For many days, Kadour walked over the snowy passes of the Atlas Mountains, surviving off the hospitality of the local Berber people. At last, he descended from the great mountain range and journeyed for several days across a vast desert until he stumbled upon a lucsh green valley, where he spotted a great city with it's minarets glinting from afar in the sunlight, which no fellow traveller had ever described.

Kadour approached the gates of the city with trepidation. There he came across men who were talking in the market, and he broke into a conversation with them. They were astonished to hear his strange dialect and to discover that he was a stranger, because no outsider had ever visited the city. They took the sweet seller to see the Pasha, who invited him in as a guest in his own house. It was the richest building kadour had ever seen. Piles of precious gemstones lay casually on the carpets of his chambers, and even the most humdrum object seemed to be made of gold.

For three days, as required by the Koran, the Pasha showered Kadour with great kindness and hospitality. But after the three most amazing days of his life, the time came for the sweet seller to leave. He was very troubled. He could not leave such a kind host without laeving him a present, and the only thing he had to give in return was his little lantern made of tin and glass. Still, he hoped the Pasha would see that this was all he owned and accept the gift in the spirit it was intended. So, before taking his leave, he plucked up all his courage and presented the Pasha with his little lantern.

The Pasha took the object in his hands and looked confused. There was silence in te house. Kadour was worried that he had caused offence and then to his great amazement, the Pasha examined the little lantern with a look of wonder and delight. He could not take his eyes off the object. Now, in this city there was no glass. No one had ever heard of glass there. The houses had slits for windows and people drank from metal cups. To see the candle light shining through red glass was a miraculous site!

But grateful as he was for the lantern, the Pasha also felt uncomfortable. You can not get such a valuable gift without giving something of great worth in return. He did not know how he could possibly give a present of equal value, because he had nothing in his treasury but a lot of common gold, a ton or two of the usual rubies, a room full of the most ordinary emeralds, and some chests of diamonds that no one would look at twice. So how could he givve this stranger a fitting return for his present?

The Pasha thought for a while before deciding the only thing to do was to give almost all he had. So he gave Kadour twelve camel loads of gold and jewels, and he trusted, worthless as the present was, that Kadour would accept it in the spirit in which it was intended. So the Pasha arranged for the camels to be loaded with the gifts, and Kadour drove the creatures back safely back over the mountains to Marrakech.

When he came home, Kadour decided that his sweet selling days were over, so with his new riches he bought a beautiful garden on the outskirts of Newport, where he planted an orchard of almond, orange and lemon trees. The garden was scented with jasmine and echoed to the sound of cool, running water and the sweet voices of nightingales. In the middle of his garden, Kadour built a magnificent mansion, where he lived as a rich and very contented man.

Now Kadour had a brother named Said, who was also a shopkeeper and who had grown prosperous while Kadour had become poor. But instead of helping Kadour in his time of crisis, Said did not even acknowledge him as a brother. However, now that Kadour was wealthy, Said suddenly remembered his brotherly relationship. Said went to visit Kadour, who welcomed his sibling into his home with generosity.

Despite complimenting his brother on his new abode and dropping many hints, Said could not discover the source of these new riches. Eventually he lost patience and asked him straight out how he had amassed his wealth. Now Kadour was a simple sould, who trusted everyone and never suffered from jealousy, so he told Said the entire story. Why things had turned out the way they did was still a mystery to Kadour. He could not understand why the Pasha had given him such precious gifts. it had not occured to him that the Pasha had considered the lantern to be of such value. But since the Pasha had presented him with these gifts, he accepted them and did not worry very much about it.

But when Said heard this story he was even more astonished than his brither had been and began to obsess about it day and night. 'What happened to my brother will surely happen to me', Said thought. 'If they gave my brother all the wealth for a silly little red lantern, what will they give me in exchange for gifts of great price?'

So Said amassed all the merchandise he could think of. He sold his house and bought even more merchandise. He bought several mules and loaded them with goods. The poor beasts strained and buckled under the weight. Said then set off over the mountains by the route his brother had carefully described.

Now, vicious bandits live in those mountains. When Kadour walked through them he had been predicted by his poverty, because there is no better shield against robbery than that. Coming back, he was protected by his luck. But Said had scarcely been travelling more than a few days when robbers set upon him. They seized his mules with the precious cargo, beat him brutally and left him under an argan tree. When he woke up, Said found himself as poor as his brother had once been. But his shame prevented him from turning back so he hurried on as fast as he could, until at last he came to the same lush valley as his brother had done before him.

When Said arrived in the city, he was taken tothe Pasha's house and treated as hospitably as his brother had been. His wounds were treated with soothing medicinal oils, musicians played gentle tunes to calm his mind, he was seated on beautiful embroidered cushions, fed the finest food, and looked after with enormous kindness. But when, after three days, the time came for Said to leave, he bitterly regretted the loss of all the magnificent gifts he had intended to give the Pasha. Of all his possessions, the only thing he had left was his watch, which was old, damaged and made of brass. But his brither had only given a little red lantern, so Said thought he would try his luck. He took a deep breath and presented the watch to the Pasha.

Now, Said was very lucky, because watches, like glass, had never been heard of in that city. The Pasha stared at the watch with a sense of wonder, as if he was gazing at the stars for the first time, for he valued this watch far more than all those mule-loads of merchandise that the robbers had seized. He prized it so much he had to wrack his brains to think of an adequate present to give in return: a treasure which would not leave him in shame or debt to the stranger. He had of course plenty of gold and jewels, but what were they worth, compared with such a gift?

The only treasure he had left that wasd fit to exchange for the watch was the great gift the previous stranger had given him. So , with deep regret, the Pasha ordered Kadour's red glass lantern to be brought out from a cabinet where it had rested in the in the strongest vault in the whole treasury, and presented it to Said. So with that lantern, Said set back for Marrakech, and on his return journey, the robbers saw no reason to trouble him.