There was once a poor man who desperately wanted to become rich. Someone told him that if he got hold of a jinn, he could become rich. The poor man heard that a sage with great powers was in his town. He went to the sage and requested him to tell him the secret of capturing a jinn. When the sage asked him why he wanted a jinn, the man replied that he wanted one to do all his work for him. The sage asked him to go home. Then the man started going to the sage every day to press him for a jinn. After a few days, the harried sage gave him the magic words that could conjure up a jinn. He also warned the man,‘A jinn is a terrible being. He will do whatever you ask him to do, but you must keep him continually busy, or he will kill you.’ The man replied, ‘That is no problem. I will give him enough work to last a lifetime.’
The man hurried to a forest and repeated the magic words for a long time. Finally, a huge jinn appeared before him.
The man said, ‘Build me a palace.’ In a moment, the jinn did it and said, ‘It is done.’ The man said, ‘Bring me lots of money.’ The jinn said, ‘Here is the money.’ The man saw that the jinn completed these tasks in the blink of an eye, so he decided to give him a very big task to keep him busy. He said, ‘Cut down this forest and build a city in its place.’ In a moment, this was done too. The jinn said, ‘This is complete. Give me something else to do.’
Now the man began to be frightened. The jinn could do everything in just a moment, and the man did not know what else he could ask him to do. The jinn said, ‘Quick! Give me something to do, or I will eat you up.’
The frightened man ran as fast as he could to the sage and begged him to save his life. A moment later, the jinn arrived and threatened to swallow the man up. The sage understood the situation. He said to the jinn, ‘Look at that dog with a curly tail. Straighten it.’ The jinn straightened the tail, but as soon as he let go of it, it curled up again. He straightened it again, but it curled up once more. He kept trying again and again, but the tail kept curling up. This went on for many days.
Finally, the jinn gave up and begged the man to let him leave. The relieved man agreed and resolved never to be greedy again.