“As I sat in the cab of my truck, under a blanket that barely kept the cold out, I thought of the gold. To this day I cannot tell you whether what followed was a dream or reality. I was again kneeling in front of the crate of gold, trying to put some of it in bags, when a jumpy little monkeylike creature with long pointy ears appeared. The ifreet, moving in a cloud of dust, bounced on the crate and said, ‘It is not yet time for you to take this gold. There are Bedouin on this land who know nothing of the gold, but if you take it, they will see you and they will find the gold on you, steal it, and kill you for it. You must wait.’

“I shuddered, perhaps from sleep. I still had the ring on my finger and the sun was just getting ready to come up over the horizon. I got out of my truck, washed my hands and feet in the sand, faced southeast, and prayed. When I was through, my mind was clear and I remembered the night before. I knew that I could not take the gold and come out alive, so I decided to leave it in God’s hands and come back again.

“I drove and before long I saw the black tents of the Bedouin from a distance, but no one approached me. I found my way back to the paved highway and raced along with my shipment. Fortunately for me, no one was awake enough to get angry that the shipment was a couple of hours late.

“When I returned home, I told no one of the Bedouin, of the gold, or of the dream. I decided that if the ifreet ever returned, I would call upon my two most trusted friends and we would go together to get the gold, which we would split evenly. This happened many years ago. Three months ago the ifreet came to me in a dream and told me that he was no longer guarding it, that it was rightly mine. ...”

“Abu Salwan, why don’t you get the gold?”

“My dear, there is some sort of military exercise in the area where the cave is. They will be there for a while, though I don’t believe forever. We must wait until they are done and gone or they will not allow us to leave without taking the booty and claiming it is government property.”

What comes next is my favorite part of the story.

Abu Salwan has a thin leather cord around his neck that disappears beneath his gelabiyya. He pulls at it and at the end is a large, gold ring. He fingers it absently.

I want the story to continue.

“Abu Salwan!”

“What’s wrong?”

“You didn’t tell us enough about the ifreet.”

“I did. I told you the ifreet came to me and told me I could not take the gold and—”