How the Police Inspector summoned the man who had fallen dead-drunk (on the ground) to (go to) prison.
The Inspector came at midnight to a certain place: he saw a man lying at the bottom of a wall.
He cried, “Hey, you are drunk: tell (me), what have you been drinking?” Said the man, “I have drunk of this which is in the jar.”
“Pray,” said he, “explain what is in the jar.” He replied, “Some of what I have drunk.” “(But),” said the Inspector, “this is hidden (from sight).”
He asked (again), “What is it that you have drunk?” He rejoined, “That which is hidden in the jar.”
These questions and answers were becoming a (vicious) circle. The Inspector was left (stuck) in the mud, like an ass.
The Inspector said to him, “Come now, say ‘Ah’”; (but) the drunken man, at the moment of utterance, said “Hú, Hú.”
“I told you to say ‘Ah’,” said he; “you are saying ‘Hú’.” “(Because) I am glad,” he replied, “while you are bent with grief.
‘Ah’ is (uttered) on account of pain and grief and injustice; the ‘Hú, Hú’ of the wine-drinkers is from joy.”
The Inspector said, “I know nothing about this. Get up, get up! Don't retail mystic lore, and leave off this wrangling.”
“Go away,” said the man; “what have you to do with me?” “You are drunk,” the Inspector said. “Get up and come to prison.”
Said the drunken man, “O Inspector, let me alone and go away. How is it possible to carry off pledges from one that is naked?
If indeed I had had the power to walk, I should have gone to my house—and (then) how would this (affair between us) have occurred?
Were I (still) possessed of understanding and of contingent (unreal) existence, I should be on the bench, (giving instruction) like the Shaykhs.”
