In Jami's 'Haft Awrang', the story of the mean market-seller who boasts of his service to a gnostic serves as an allegory on the spiritual destructiveness of boasting about one's favors (minnat). The market-seller serves the gnostic devotedly for a long time, but when a single pebble in the food hurts his tooth, his underlying mean nature (siflah) is exposed as he begins to count and boast of all his past services as monumental favors. This narrative illustrates that true service and devotion must be entirely free from ego, expectation of reward, and the desire to hold favors over others. For the gnostic, who is free from the humiliation of greed, the seller's boasts expose how worldly attachments and self-conceit invalidate seemingly virtuous deeds.