Discerning Generosity in Jami's Tale of Nushirvan and the Golden Cup

This concept draws out the moral logic of the Baharestan tale in which the just king Nushirvan sees a kinsman quietly slip a golden cup into his robe during a Nowruz assembly. Rather than let his wine-steward search the departing guests, Nushirvan forbids the search, sparing the offender from public disgrace.

When the man later appears in new clothes and new boots, the king reads the hidden cause behind the theft: the act sprang from need, not greed. Instead of punishing him, Nushirvan orders a gift of a thousand mithqals of gold, removing the poverty that drove the wrongdoing.

The tale models an ideal of royal justice as discernment and magnanimity — perceiving the cause beneath an action, preserving the transgressor's dignity by refusing slander (نمامی), and converting a lapse into an occasion for generosity.