This anecdote from Jami's Baharestan satirizes a miserly host who deflects a beggar's request with the excuse that the household folk are not at home. The beggar's sharp retort — that he wants only a piece of bread, not the company of the household — exposes the hollowness of the excuse and the host's reluctance to give even basic charity. The closing verses advise giving whatever one has without pretext, and warn that while withholding bread is bad, insinuating that a beggar seeks something improper is worse. The passage delivers a moral lesson on generosity, the dignity of honest need, and the empty pretexts by which the stingy avoid almsgiving.