In Casgar, on the utmost boundary of Tartary, lived a tailor and his pretty wife. One day a little hunchback seated himself at the shop door and began to sing and play on a tabor. The tailor invited the hunchback in to entertain his wife. The hospitable wife immediately placed a dish of fish before the men. The hunchback swallows a bone and chokes to death. The accident greatly alarms the tailor, who fearing the magistrate will hear of it, plans to get rid of the corpse. They carry the body to the house of the Jewish doctor and put it at the bottom of a steep flight of stairs, then hastily run away. The doctor, coming down the stairs without a light, falls upon the corpse. He thinks he has killed a poor, sick fellow coming for treatment. Stealthily, the doctor and his wife carry the body to the terrace of their house and throw it down the chimney of their Mussulman neighbor. The Mussulman is one of the Sultan’s purveyors; coming into tho room, sees a man at his chimney. Thinking he is a robber, he strikes him a good blow with a stick. The corpse falls on the floor, and he thinks he has killed the man. In great distress and fear he carries the body to the end of the street and places it in an upright position against a shop. A rich Christian merchant, coming home from a night’s festivities, jostles into the corpse, which falls upon him. Thinking he is being attacked by a thief he throws him down, calling “Thief.” The outcry alarms the watch, and finding a Christian beating a Mussulman, they arrest the merchant and bring him to the magistrate. The magistrate recognizes the hunchback as the Sultan’s buffoon, and orders death to the merchant. Just as he is about to be hanged, the purveyor comes along proclaiming himself the guilty party. The executioner releases the merchant and puts the rope around the purveyor’s neck. Just then the voice of the Jewish doctor calls for the execution to be suspended. The Jewish doctor tells his story and is condemned in the place of the purveyor. The rope is just about to go around the doctor’s neck when the tailor rushes in to tell his story. The Sultan, hearing of the mix-up, commands them all to his presence, and though he grieves for his buffoon, he pardons all concerned in his favorite’s death.