Bahlool the Mad was well known for his unusual behaviour. Some said the acted oddly because he was a great saint and he wished to hide the fact from the world. Others said that he was not pretending – he acted strangely because he was strange.

Sometimes Bahlool would sit by the caravan track at the edge of the city, and with the help of a little water, build palaces of sand. The merchants travelling along the track were accustomed to see him there, and some would offer to buy his sand palaces. Whatever he received, Bahlool would take the next day to distribute among the poor.

One day, it was not a merchant who stopped to look at his palace but the mighty Khalifa Haroun al Rashid. “Bahlool,” said Haroun, “what is the price of your palace?”

Bahlool usually asked the merchants only a dinar, but knowing of the wealth of the Khalif he said, “A hundred dinars.”

“What!?!” said Haroun. “so much money for a handful of sand? Certainly not!” And he rode away.

But that night, the Khalifa had a dream in which an angel appeared, and taking the Khalif up to heaven, showed him many magnificent, glittering palaces. “All these,” said the angel, “were made by Bahlool. Those who bought them will live here when they leave the earth.”

In the morning, Haroun was filled with regret that he had not bought the palace from Bahlool. Hunting through the city, he at last found him sitting with some dogs by a rubbish heap near the market. “Bahlool,” Haroun said to him, “that palace you’re offered to sell me yesterday, I am willing to buy it now. Here is a hundred dinars.”

Bahlool shook his head. “The angels have already taken that one to heaven.”

“Then build another!”

“I will,” said Bahlool. “But the price has gone up. The angels told me I was undercharging. Now they say I must ask for a million dinars.”