14-06-11 As long as our father lived Alnaschar was very idle（懒散的） . Instead of working for his bread he was not ashamed to ask for it every evening, and to support himself next day on what he had received the night before. When our father died, worn out...

14-06-11 Twenty years passed by, and my brother was still living with the Barmecide, looking after his house, and managing his affairs. At the end of that time his generous benefactor（恩人，施主） died without heirs, so all his possessions went to the princ...

14-05-30 A person in the state of Song was good at making a medicine that can prevent skin chaps. It was his family tradition to bleach cotton to make a living. A merchant heard of this medicine and offered him a hundred pieces of gold. The Song person thoug...

14-04-09 Oh certainly, said he, I am only glad I could be of use to you in the matter. Here is the key of my shop; you will find the vase in the place where you put it. Ali Cogia fetched his vase and carried it to his room at the inn, where he opened it. He...

14-04-09 In the reign of Haroun-al-Raschid, there lived in Bagdad a merchant named Ali Cogia, who, having neither wife nor child, contented himself with the modest profits produced by his trade. He had spent some years quite happily in the house his father h...

13-11-29 A long time ago and far away, there lived a merchant and his three daughters. The older girls were proud, while the youngest girl was generous and kind. One day, the merchant heard that all his ships had been lost in a storm. He was penniless（贫穷...

13-04-25 A merchant had done good business at the fair; he had sold his wares, and lined his money-bags with gold and silver. Then he wanted to travel homewards, and be in his own house before nightfall. So he packed his trunk with the money on his horse, an...

12-06-21 Once there lived a rich merchant and a poor shoemaker in the same house. The merchant occupied the second floor, but the shoemaker lived and worked in a small room on the first floor. The shoemaker was one of the happiest persons on earth. He worked...

12-05-02 Evidence that a Florentine merchant house financed the earliest English voyages to North America, has been published on-line in the academic journal Historical Research. The article by Dr Francesco Guidi-Bruscoli, a member of a project based at the...

10-12-17 Right in the middle of Japan, high in the mountain, an old man lived in his little house. He found in one corner of the room an old iron kettle. He decided to use it to boil water. To his surprise, the kettle became a strange creature when it was on...