A True Story
Once, the high Turkish commander of the army and gendarmes deputized our beloved officer, the great scholar Mohammad Amin Sheikho, to head a force of gendarmes that would keep order during the festival of Barza’s band. This was a festival to which large crowds of people would come to see the band and to watch the wonders of the fraudulent magicians that were there.
On this occasion, our officer suddenly noticed something that the greatest sheikh of the band was doing. This man took a scarf out of the saddlebag of his donkey, but it seemed that this scarf actually concealed a glass bottle, because the sheikh then took a drink from some kind of beverage before returning the bottle to its place.
Deliberately and carefully, the officer approached him on his horse, and the next time he took a drink, Mr. Mohammad Emin snatched the bottle from his hand quickly and strongly. When he brought it close to his nose, he found that it was a wine bottle!! This event occurred before the very eyes of many people in the crowds.
Our officer then knocked the magician from his donkey’s back, and showered him with a battery of blows; then he sent him to prison along with the wine bottle, so that it would be evidence to show the man’s real character.