Explore "Al-Wali, or "the Holy One"" by Hilaire Belloc on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When the hour of public executions had arrived (they were more numerous than usual) his young nephews respectfully assembled at the feet of the aged millionaire and received the further account of his fortunes.
"You might imagine, my children," he began "that having this small capital so happily furnished me by Providence in the short space of a single day, I would again venture upon a commercial undertaking. That would have been indeed my natural course; but you must remember that I could not, without great danger, enter the city I had just left, lest my able transactions should lead me into contact with those at whose expense they had been conducted. Further, I was in a strange country with no knowledge of my way and with nothing to guide me save the happy circumstance that I was still within the boundaries of our holy religion. Most of those I should meet would thus be True Believers, whose frailties I could better understand than those of the Kafir, and of whom therefore I could (under the all-powerful guidance of Heaven) more easily take advantage.