A man used to shout superfluous calls to prayers in the mosque of Sinjar and in a voice which displeased all who heard it. The owner of the mosque, who was a just and virtuous amir, not desirous to give him pain, said: ’My good fellow, in this mosque there are old muezzins’ to each of whom I pay five dinars monthly but to thee I shall give ten, if thou wilt go to another place.’ The man agreed and went away. Some time afterwards however, he returned to the amir and said: ’My lord, thou hast injured me by turning me away for ten dinars from this place because where I next went they offered me twenty dinars to go to another locality but I refused.’ The amir smiled and said: ’By no means accept them because will give thee even fifty dinars.’
No one can scrape the mud from gravel with an axe
As thy discordant shouting scrapes the heart.
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Chicago: Sheikh Muslih-uddin Sa'di Shirazi, "Story 13," The Gulistan of Sa’di Original Sources, accessed July 15, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=16P6497BDZFAH5H.
MLA: Shirazi, Sheikh Muslih-uddin Sa'di. "Story 13." The Gulistan of Sa’di, Original Sources. 15 Jul. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=16P6497BDZFAH5H.
Harvard: Shirazi, SM, 'Story 13' in The Gulistan of Sa’di. Original Sources, retrieved 15 July 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=16P6497BDZFAH5H.