In this tale from Jami's Haft Awrang, a scholar who had once climbed out of the 'well of ignorance' through learning falls into a literal well along the road, left there like Joseph in the pit. When his own student happens by and offers a rescuing hand, the scholar refuses to take it: to be pulled up by a pupil would, in his eyes, overturn the teacher's rank and cost him his standing and reward. Jami turns the episode into a satire on the vanity of learned men who prize formal status and self-regard above their own safety and above genuine humility, contrasting hollow scholarly pride with the true knowledge that ought to free the soul.