"Please go to sleep! Tomorrow is another busy day," groaned Shahram's wife, Meena, because he had been tossing and and turning in bed a hundred times. "When you are so restless, I can't sleep either," Meena added. 

"Ah, if you had my problems!" complained Shahram. "A few months ago, I signed a note and tomorrow it is due. You know I don't have any money, and our neighbor to whom I owe the money, can be more poisonous than a scorpion when it is a question of money. Poor me! How can I sleep?"

Then he began tossing back and forth again. Meena's attempts to calm him down were of no avail. She tried to comfort him by saying, "Wait till morning, then things will look different and perhaps we will find a way to pay the money."

"Nothing will work," groaned Shahram. "Everything is lost!"

Finally, Meena lost her patience and went out onto the roof and called over to the neighbor, "Oh neighbor, you know my husband owes you a debt which is due tomorrow! I want to tell you something you don't know. My husband can't pay the debt tomorrow."

Without waiting for an answer, Meena ran back into the bedroom and said, "If I can't sleep, my neighbor should not either!" She crawled back into bed, while Shahram pulled the sheet high over his ears and lay there anxiously. Soon all was quiet, and nothing more could be heard but the even breathing of the couple.

Note: They still owe the money, but now perhaps, the neighbors will have trouble sleeping, huh? This is an old Persian tale.

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