One Thousand and One Nights

Kafur, an African eunuch, narrates his tale. He relates at the start that he is a liar: “[W]hen no more than eight years of ago I had already cultivated a remarkable habit of telling one big lie a year” (237). After this admission, Kafur relates that his former masters passed him from one to the other because of his bad habit of lying. After a merchant purchases him, Kafur spreads the lie that this merchant and his guests were crushed to death, prompting panic among the merchant’s family and the town’s governor. When Kafur returns to his master, he tells him that the walls of his home have fallen onto his entire family. Grief besets the merchant. Soon, both deceived parties come upon one another and realize that everything Kafur had told them was a lie. The master decries Kafur as an “ill-omened slave […] damned offspring of a monstrous race” (240). When the merchant confronts him, Kafur reminds him that he purchased him knowing about his bad habit and warns him that this was only half of a lie. This enrages everyone involved, and they take Kafur to the governor, where he is beaten and castrated.