Two men set off walking on their feet, but with the intensity of the heat they were in need of water, and they did not have with them except one camel owned by one of them, and the other did not have anything he owned. The two friends walked searching for any source of water, until they found a well, but without a bucket that could enable them to carry water. The owner of the camel volunteered to go down to the bottom of the well to carry water and ascend, with the help of his friend, so the friend agreed.
The two men tied a rope around the waist of the camel owner, and the man descended into the well and carried two buckets of water, and handed them to his friend while he was ascending, but his friend had been greedy for the camel, so he carried the water on the back of the camel and set off without him, leaving the man inside the well, not knowing what to do in this predicament.
The well was deep and the man could not ascend alone, so he sat waiting for someone to pass through this place, but he knew that it was a semi-abandoned area that no one came to, so he sat waiting for his fate, which was death from hunger and fear.
When darkness fell and night came, the man heard conversations of some people, so he listened a little, and found them a group of men from the sorcerers, who come to this well every year at the same time to tell it what they had done throughout the year. One of them said boasting of himself, I performed a spell that caused the loss of so-and-so’s trade, and another said as for me I performed a spell that caused one of the girls not to marry until our time.
Another said I caused the death of so-and-so in a traffic accident, here they all looked at an old sorcerer, and asked him what he had done throughout the year. The old man smiled with obvious malice, and said to them as for me I caused the madness of the ruler’s daughter, and until now no one has been able to cure her from what she suffers, and no one knows her cure except me, so one of them asked him, and what is her medicine, so the sorcerer answered with malice, that water from this well should be sprinkled on her.
The sorcerers kept laughing and conversing until the morning broke, here the man inside the well swore to save the ruler’s daughter if he was destined to get out of this place.
God Almighty willed that a group of men came to the well wanting to get some water. Here the man shouted from the bottom of the well that he could help them get water if they brought him out. The men were frightened and thought he was a demon, but he reassured them that he was a human like them, and told them how his friend betrayed him, left him in the well, and took his camel and departed.
The men helped him get out, and he helped them get water, and got some for himself, then set off towards the ruler’s palace.
The guards did not want to let the man in, and mocked him saying that no doctor came except that he failed to save the ruler’s daughter, but with the man’s insistence they let him in, to the ruler who had despaired of healing his only daughter, but he let the man do his work, so the man ascended to the room where the girl had been isolated. There he saw her beautiful but ragged in clothes and disheveled in hair, and as soon as she saw him she tried to attack him, so he threw the water in her face, so she fell unconscious a little, then she woke up completely rational as she was, and wondering what had happened to her.
The ruler could not comprehend what happened, and went to see his daughter, and as soon as he saw that she had returned completely rational, he married her to her savior. Because the ruler had only his daughter, after God took him, the man became ruler of the country.
And during the ruler’s tour of the country, he noticed his treacherous friend, so he asked the guards to bring him to him, and they did. As soon as the man went to him, he began to plead with him to let him go, so the man said to him do you not know me? He answered him that he had never entered this palace before, so the man laughed and asked him to look at him closely, so the man looked at him for a long time, then his eyes widened in horror, and asked him for mercy, so the ruler laughed and said to him, I have forgiven you for you are the reason I reached here, and told him what had happened with him exactly a year ago, then released him.
The greedy man had the same thought and said why do I not go to the well myself also, and listen to them on their day, for they will come to the well tomorrow, and indeed the man went and hid in the well, and the sorcerers came and began exchanging conversation. Here the old sorcerer spoke, that he had performed a strong spell for the ruler’s daughter, and did not know how she was saved from it, and accused them that there was a traitor among them. They all answered him that they had never spoken to anyone about what happened between them, or told each other about it, so another answered them that this well must be teeming with jinn, and they must fill it up and move the conversation to beside another well. Indeed they threw stones on the well until they filled it up, and thus the greedy man died without gaining anything.