He was a person who was squint-eyed, bald on two sides of his head and unable to pronounce the letters ر (ra) and ل (lam). He possessed such intense greed for material wealth and food that he never seemed to be fully satisfied in this regard. When questioned about this attribute of his, he replied: “Each time I see smoke bellowing out of someone’s house, I feel as if they are preparing the food for me and I sit waiting for the food. But when, despite waiting for a very long time, there is no sign of any food, I dip dry bread in water and eat it!
And whenever I hear the adhan being recited over a deceased, I feel that the deceased has set aside one third of his wealth for me and with this thought in mind, I go to his house and assist in giving him the ablutions, covering him in his shroud and, finally participating in his burial. But when after his burial there is no sign of the wealth, I return home disappointed and dejected.
And when I walk through the streets, I spread my cloak apart in the hope that perhaps a person, while throwing a thing from his roof or window to his neighbour, may slip-up and that thing may land in my cloak.”
It is said that once while passing through a street, he came across some children engaged in playing games. He decided to tell them a lie.
“O’ Children! Why do you stand here when at a crossroad further down there is a person distributing his load of red and white apples amongst the people for free?” he told them.
Hearing this, the children immediately rushed towards the crossroad. As they ran, Ash’ab was himself overcome with greed and he too started to run towards the crossroad.
“You have fabricated the story yourself, so why do you run?” the people asked him.
He replied, “The children ran out of seriousness whereas I run out of greed. Maybe there is really someone out there distributing the apples and I do not wish to remain deprived of them.” ( Lataif al-Tawaif, Page 361 )