This tale from Jami's Haft Awrang dramatizes how a learned but impoverished stranger, honored with the office of judge by a wise king, is suddenly ruined by an envious false accusation. Acting on slander rather than proven guilt, the king orders the man's house plundered of its silver and gold and threatens him with castration.

The judge's answer embodies the concept: he declares that he does not grieve over the loss of his home and wealth, and pleads only that they spare him the graver bodily harm. The allegory contrasts detachment from perishable worldly possessions with the preservation of what is essential to one's dignity and being, while warning against the destructive power of envy and the caprice of rulers who punish the innocent on hearsay.