The evening had finally come, an end to another busy day in the market, and the merchants all prepared to close their stalls. The perfume seller, an unpleasant fellow in the best of times, was especially disgruntled tonight.
He had had another bad day. Few people had set foot in his shop, and when they did, they almost all left without having made even the smallest purchase. He poured all the perfume he had on display back into the large casks, put his meager profit of one coin into his pocket, and closed up his shutters for the day. As he was about to leave, he saw his neighbor, an oil merchant, also setting off for home. My neighbor, he thought bitterly, has all the luck. So many customers flock to his shop that he has even had to hire another worker to serve them. Then, an evil thought entered his mind.
Tonight, he thought, I will come back to my shop when no one is in the market, and I will drill a hole in the wall that separates our shops. Then I will be able to spy on my neighbor whenever I wish. He wasn't even sure at that moment what use he would make of this peephole, but an idea was germinating in his jealous mind.
Late that night the perfume merchant returned to his shop in the darkened market. He took out a small hand drill and chiseled an almost imperceptible hole in the wall which separated him from the oil merchant. By now his devious plan had fully developed in his mind; he knew exactly what he would do. It only remained to find an opportune moment to strike, and that occurred the very next day.
Dusk fell in the shouk and the shutters of the shops were closed one by one. The perfume seller approached his clandestine hole in the dividing wall between the two shops, and sure enough, he saw what he had anticipated. There was his neighbor, the oil merchant, tallying up his daily profit. He took the pile of shining coins of all denominations, put them into a red handkerchief and into his pocket. He blew out his lamp, closed his door and went out into the dusk.
No sooner had he emerged than the perfume merchant ran past him screaming, "Help! Help! Thief! This man has stolen all my money which I was wrapped in my red handkerchief". People came running from all directions, and soon the gerdarmes surrounded the shocked oil seller and had him bound in chains. He loudly protested his innocence, but shortly he found himself locked in a dark cell.
The arrest and trial of the Jewish oil seller was all the talk of the town. Emotions ran high as the people divided into factions, pro and con the merchant, and they had even laid bets as to the outcome of the trial. Who was telling the truth? It seemed impossible to tell. In just a few days, the high court, with the Sultan sitting at its head would meet to hear the arguments of the accused and the accuser, but although the Sultan had reviewed the matter in his mind many times over, he still was full of indecision. Who would guess that a small Jewish boy would be the one to solve the mystery and bring the light of truth to bear on the final outcome of the trial.
It came to pass that the day before the trial, the Sultan was out strolling through the streets trying to clear his mind in preparation for the difficult deliberations ahead. He overheard childish voices saying: "Yes, let's play the perfume seller and the oil seller." "I'll be the judge," said one small boy.
The Sultan stood out of sight waiting to hear this play being enacted by the group of Jewish children. The little judge questioned both merchants, and each vigorously insisted on the truth of his claims. Finally, the child called for silence and made the following pronouncement: "Have the court clerk bring in a bowl of boiling hot water and place the coins in the bowl. If oil rises to the top, it will be apparent that the money belongs to the oil seller; if the water becomes perfumed, we will know that the perfume seller is telling the truth."
