Many years ago in Baghdad there lived a man named Mirza. His father had died leaving him a house and plenty of money. But he was foolish and young and wasted all of his inheritance. After spending all his money, he sold his furniture until he did not even have a bed in which to sleep.
So one balmy summer night, Mirza went outside to his garden and slept under his favorite fig tree. Prayering himself to sleep, mumbling, “Lord, Lord, provide for your poor child down here.”
That night he dreamt. And in his dream he heard a voice from Heaven, “Seek your fortune in Samarqand!”
The next morning Mirza woke with a new resolve. He packed what little he had left and set off on the great journey. He crossed deserts and mountain passes haunted by ghosts and bandits. After many months he arrived in the fabled city of Samarqand.
He spent his first day walking the winding streets. But he did not know where to look for his fortune. That night he had nowhere to stay, so he took shelter in a Mosque.
As darkness fell a group of robbers ravaged the neighborhood. When the city guards arrived the next morning they found Mirza sleeping like a vagrant in the Mosque and assumed that he had committed the robberies. So they bound him and led him off to the Qadi.
The Qadi questioned him and Mirza decided to tell the truth, “I am a traveler. I am following a dream, which told me to seek a fortune in Samarqand. I arrived yesterday and just spent the night in the Mosque.”
The Qadi laughed at this story, “You foolish boy. Dreams mean nothing. I had a dream in which I saw a great fortune buried under a fig tree in the garden of a house in Baghdad but I am not foolish enough to leave my home to follow such imaginings.”
And Mirza was set free and allowed to return home.
