When Haroun er Reshid put Jaafer the Barmecide to deathhe commanded that all who wept or made moan for him should be crucified；so the folk abstained from this. Now there was a Bedouin from a distant desertwho used every year to make and bring to Jaafer an ode in his honourfor which he rewarded him with a thousand diners；and the Bedouin took them and returning to his own countrylived upon themhe and his familyfor the rest of the year. Accordinglyhe came with his ode at the wonted time and finding Jaafer done to deathbetook himself to the place where his body was hangingand there made his camel kneel down and wept sore and mourned grievously. Then he recited his ode and fell asleep. In his sleep Jaafer the Barmecide appeared to him and said'Thou hast wearied thyself to come to us and findest us as thou seest；but go to Bassora and ask for such a man there of the merchants of the town and say to him'Jaafer the Barmecide salutes thee and bids thee give me a thousand dinersby the token of the bean.'
When the Bedouin awokehe repaired to Bassorawhere he sought out the merchant and repeated to him what Jaafer had said in the dream；whereupon he wept soretill he was like to depart the world. Then he welcomed the Bedouin and entertained him three days as an honoured guest；and when he was minded to departhe gave him a thousand and five hundred dinerssaying'The thousand are what is commanded to theeand the five hundred are a gift from me to thee；and every year thou shalt have of me a thousand diners.'When the Bedouin was about to take leavehe said to the merchant'I conjure theeby Allahtell me the story of the beanthat I may know the origin of all this.'In the early part of my life，'replied the merchant'I was miserably poor and hawked hot boiled beans about the streets of Baghdad for a living.