'Haste to do kindness thou cost intend; * Thou canst not always on boons expend: How many from bounty themselves withheld, * Till means of bounty had come to end!'"
And men tell another tale of the
Generous Dealing of Yahya Son of Khálid with a Man Who Forged a Letter
in his Name
There was between Yáhyá bin Khálid and Abdullah bin Málik al- Khuzá'i,[FN#248] an enmity which they kept secret; the reason of the hatred being that Harun al-Rashid loved Abdullah with exceeding love, so that Yahya and his sons were wont to say that he had bewitched the Commander of the Faithful. And thus they abode a long while, with rancour in their hearts, till it fell out that the Caliph invested Abdullah with the government of Armenia[FN#249] and despatched him thither. Now soon after he had settled himself in his seat of government, there came to him one of the people of Irak, a man of good breeding and excellent parts and abundant cleverness; but he had lost his money and wasted his wealth and his estate was come to ill case; so he forged a letter to Abdullah bin Malik in the name of Yahya bin Khálid and set out therewith for Armenia. Now when he came to the Governor's gate, he gave the letter to one of the Chamberlains, who took it and carried it to his master. Abdullah opened it