Once there lived a rich man who had a young wife, and she was stone deaf.
And upon a morning when they were having their breakfast, she spoke to him and she said, “Yesterday I visited the market place, and there were exhibited silken raiment from Damascus, and coverchiefs from India, necklaces from Persia, and bracelets from Yemen. It seems that the caravans had but just brought these things to our city. And now behold me, in rags, yet the wife of a rich man. I would have some of those beautiful things.”
The husband, still busy with his morning coffee said, “My dear, there is no reason why you should not go down to the street and buy all that your heart may desire.”
And the deaf wife said, “‘No!’ You always say ‘No, no’. Must I needs appear in tatters among our friends to shame your wealth and my people?”
And the husband said,“I did not say ‘No’. You may go forth freely to the market place and purchase the most beautiful apparel and jewels that have come to our city.”
But again the wife misread his words, and she replied,“Of all rich men you are the most miserly. You would deny me everything of beauty and loveliness, while other women of my age walk the gardens of the city clothed in rich raiment.”