The Lone Bedouin II: Emir Falcos Camel. They say that once Khoja Nasreddin wagered with Emir Falco himself, ruler of seven oases and owner of the camel Scheherazade, that he could cross the Endless Sands riding absolutely anything. The Emir, a man of temper, replied that Nasreddin could not manage it even on his own donkey. And so, to prove him wrong, the Khoja was given a task: to deliver an urgent message to a distant oasis. The reward promised was a sack of gold and the honour of returning Scheherazade to the Emir in person. The punishment, as is customary, was something extremely unpleasant, which polite people do not speak of even in fairy tales. But the trouble was that Nasreddin had no donkey at that moment. None at all. However, there was a neighbour, Abu-l-Kasim, who kept a gray stubborn beast named Abdullah and agreed to lend him in exchange for half the future reward, the robe of his late mother-in-law, and three pilaf recipes. Thus the Khoja, no longer quite as rich as he had been an hour ago, set out on a donkey who, by common opinion, was cleverer than his master, but unfortunately did not know it. The desert, my friends, is a capricious thing. By day it melts like butter in a pan, by night it chills like a mother-in-laws heart. Oases beckon with emerald water, but not every oasis is real, and every real one is guarded by either a scorpion, a hyena, or a spirit who remembers the times when a sea splashed here. Mirages promise palaces, ruins guard cursed gold, and portals lead to places from which even a sage does not always return with the same face he left with. So step into the desert together with the Khoja, seat yourself upon Abdullah, and try to outwit fate itself. Perhaps you will find the camel Scheherazade and return her to the Emir. Or perhaps you will discover that Nasreddin knew where she was all along and was simply leading everyone by the nose, including you. For who, if not he, once said that truth exists, but one should not tell it to anyone, because nobody will believe it anyway. But the donkey, by the way, believes. And that makes him wiser than many.