THE ELEVENTH NIGHT
The following morning Dinarzad said to her sister Shaharzad, “Sister, if you are not sleepy, please tell us a little tale and finish the one you started.” Shaharzad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:

I heard, O happy King, that there was once a merchant doing business in the market. But once in a dispute,  he accidentally killed the customer, but he did not repent, but continued to do his business after disposing of the corpse. One day the customer’s family found evidence about the merchant killing the customer and found out that the merchant was the murderer. They sent him to the King. After he was taken away, he was tried and put in an abandoned palace - a small dirt house in the middle of the desert for the rest of his life.

Every day in the abandoned palace is boring. Someone will come and bring food only during brunch and dinner time every day, and no one will approach this palace during all other times. Several years pass. When the merchant wakes up one morning, he finds a mole in the house. The mole just poked its head out of the small hole he dug, and turned around and was startled by the merchant. The merchant looked at the mole and said, “Who are you and why are you here?” The mole replied, “Our family is poor. One day I was gathering food for my family, and suddenly someone came and took me into a jar and brought me here. I escaped from him and was looking for my home. Why are you in such a deserted place?” So the merchant told the mole about his story, and an idea came to his mind while looking at the hole the mole dug. So he asked the Mole, “Can you dig a hole bigger than this?” “Of course I can.” the mole replied. The merchant was very happy: “Then can you help the weak and pitiful me escape from this place? I will definitely repay you after I go out!” The mole thought for a while. Because he also just escaped from someone else’s hands, he understood the feeling of being trapped. After some thought, the mole said to the merchant, “Of course.” The merchant was overjoyed, knelt down to the mole again and again, and said, “O my Lord, thank you for saving my life.” Then he said to the mole: “Thank you!” The mole replied: “If you want me to help you escape, I’ll get the hole ready and come back to you in three days to take you out.” Then the mole went back to the hole and came out through the entrance. Then he began to enlarge the size of the hole, and dig the hole bigger and bigger, so that the merchant could escape smoothly.

But morning overtook Shaharzad, and she lapsed into silence. Then her sister said, “What a lovely story!” Shaharzad replied, “Tomorrow night I shall tell you the rest, which is stranger and more wonderful, if the king spares me and lets me live!”

THE TWELFTH NIGHT

The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “Please, sister, if you are not sleepy, finish the story of fisherman and demon.” Shaharzad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:

O King, I heard that three days later, after all things were prepared, the mole came to the abandoned palace late at night. The merchant was very happy to see him again. He said, “Please bring me out quickly!” So the mole led the merchant into the tunnel and ran in front of him. The merchant followed him excitedly. After running for a while, they finally saw the moonlight. the merchant felt the breath of freedom again, he said to the mole: “Thank you so much for freeing me from the abandoned palace. Please follow me back to my home, I will give you a rich reward.”

The mole followed the merchant . After a long journey, they finally came to the merchant’s home. The merchant invited the mole to his house, closed the door, and said to the mole, “Ah, Mole, I am very grateful to you for saving me, and to repay you, I will kill you, for this you will be freed, and you should be happy about it.” The mole said: “What? I kindly dig a hole to help you escape from the abandoned palace, why would you kill me?” The merchant said: “Although you helped me, you are the only one who knows how I escaped from the palace and my home. As long as you have been killed, no one will know it, and it’s safe for me.” The mole exclaimed: “It took me a lot to help you escape, and you promised to repay me, so why did you want to kill me?” The merchant replied: “This is the repayments for you. After you die, you are freed, and there’s no need to worry about your family.” The mole said, “But after I die, my family still has to face problems about life.” The merchant replied: “But at least you don’t have to worry.” Mole was very angry and asked the merchant: “Killing me? This is a stupid reward!” The merchant went to the kitchen and got a knife, and said to the mole with fierce eyes: “This is the repay for you! Tell me, quickly, how do you want to die?” The mole panicked and wanted to dig a hole to escape immediately. The merchant slashed the knife at the mole, but he missed the cut. Then he tried to pull the knife from the ground, but he accidentally fell to the ground, and was killed by the knife when his head hit it.