It is said that Bahlool lived in a desolate house. Across it was a cobbler’s shop which had a window opening towards the house. Bahlool collected a few dirhams and hid them in the dirt. Whenever the need came, he dug up the dirt and took out the needed coins, and buried the rest back again. As it so happened, one day when he needed some coins, he dug the earth and saw that all of his money had disappeared. He immediately understood that the cobbler, whose window faced his house, had taken the coins.
Without making any comment or commotion, Bahlool went and sat by the cobbler to chitchat. Bahlool talked so much that the cobbler became confident and not uneasy. Then Bahlool said, “Beloved friend! Please keep an account for me.”
“You keep talking and I’ll keep adding.”
Bahlool talked about some houses and buildings, and with each he mentioned some coins. Then he said that in the house he now lived in there was buried a certain amount of coins. After that the cobbler added them all up and said that there was a total of 2,000 dinars.
Bahlool thought for a while and said, “O friend! Now I want some advice from you.”
“Okay. Speak.”
“I want to bury all the coins I have at other places in the house that I live in now; what do you think?”
“Very good idea. Bring all the coins you have hidden and bury them in your present house.”
“I agree to this. Now I will go bring all the coins from other places to bury in that house.” Saying this, Bahlool left the cobbler.
The cobbler thought to himself, “I will bury those coins I stole back where they were. When Bahlool brings the other coins, I will find them and take all of them at once.” Thinking this, he returned the stolen coins to their previous place.
A few hours later, Bahlool went to his house and examined the area that he kept his money in and saw that the cobbler had reburied the coins he had stolen. Bahlool took out the coins, thanked Allah, left that house and went to another. The cobbler waited a very long time for Bahlool, but he was not going to be and could not be found. After a while the cobbler finally understood that Bahlool had tricked him, and so had got his money back.