The Trickster
One day I found a brass lamp on the side of the road. I was feeling a bit down, so I rubbed it for good luck. A genie appeared before me, his legs and ankles bound together with red rope, begging Solomon to free him.
“I am no Solomon,” I told the genie. “But if you do not grant me a wish, I will return you to him.” The genie wailed, and agreed on condition. “What is it that you wish for?” it asked.
“Riches.”
“I will present to you three houses. You shall pick one, and thus become its owner and inherit all inside it.”
The genie then presented three houses to me: the first two were mansions, decked in marble and electrum, surrounded by gardens; the last was a simple hut made of mud bricks. Now I know that genies are tricksters by nature, so I chose the hut.
I found myself moved in an instant to the mud hut. Inside there was a wooden bench and a straw mat.
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