بخش 81 - آمدن آن امیر نمام با سرهنگان نیم‌شب بگشادن آن حجرهٔ ایاز و پوستین و چارق دیدن آویخته و گمان بردن کی آن مکرست و روپوش و خانه را حفره کردن بهر گوشه‌ای کی گمان آمد چاه کنان آوردن و دیوارها را سوراخ کردن و چیزی نایافتن و خجل و نومید شدن چنانک بدگمانان و خیال‌اندیشان در کار انبیا و اولیا کی می‌گفتند کی ساحرند و خویشتن ساخته‌اند و تصدر می‌جویند بعد از تفحص خجل شوند و سود ندارد

Those trusted (officers) came to the door of the chamber: they began to search for the treasure and the gold and the jar.

A number of them, (urged) by vain desire, unlocked the door with infinite dexterity and skill;

For it was a formidable lock with intricate bolts: he (Ayáz) had selected it from (many other) locks,

Not that he was avaricious of silver and riches and crude (uncoined) gold, (but) in order to hide that secret (of his) from the vulgar,

“Lest” (so he thought) “some people imagine evil, (while) others call me a hypocrite.”

With the man of lofty aspiration the soul's secrets are kept from the base (worldlings) more safely than the ruby in the mine.

Greed was predominant (in them), and gold had become (dear to them) as their souls: at that moment the cry of reason was unheard.

Greed and its clamours had become hundredfold; wisdom and its suggestions had vanished,

To the end that he (the greedy man) may fall into the pit of delusion, and then hearken to the reproaches of Wisdom.

When his wind (idle self-conceit) is broken by imprisonment in the trap, the rebuking soul gets the upper hand over him.

Until his head comes against the wall of affliction, his deaf ear will not listen to the counsel of his heart.

Greed for walnut-cake and sugar makes the ears of children deaf to admonitions;

(Only) when the pain of his abscess begins do his (the child's) ears become open to good advice.

Then the party (of searchers), with cupidity and a hundred kinds of vain desire, opened the chamber.

They swarmed in through the doorway, jostling each other, like vermin (falling) on fetid buttermilk.

They (the insects) fall on it triumphantly, like lovers, (but) there is no possibility of drinking, and both wings are stuck.

They (the officers) looked to the left and to the right: there was (only) a torn pair of shoon and a sheepskin jacket.

After (having looked), they said (to one another), “This place is not without balm: the shoon are only (displayed) here as a blind.

Hey, bring sharp picks: try excavation and tunnelling.”

The (searching) party dug and searched in every direction: they dug holes and deep cavities.

Thereupon the holes were (virtually) crying out to them, “We are empty holes, O ye stinkers!”

Accordingly they (the officers) were ashamed of that (evil) thought (concerning Ayáz) and filled up the holes again.

In every breast were innumerable (sighs of) lá hawl: the bird, their greed, was left without any food to peck.

The holes in the walls and in the door were informers against them (giving intelligence) of their futile aberrations.

The wall could not possibly be plastered (repaired): there was no possibility of denying before Ayáz (what they had done);

(For) if they make a pretence of being innocent, the wall and floor will bear witness (against them).

(With such reflections) they were returning to the King, covered with dust and pale-faced and ashamed.