Bahlool and the Market Inspection

During the time of Harun al-Rashid, Bahlool was appointed as the market inspector. Harun, believing Bahlool to be the wisest person of his time, made him the market inspector. Bahlool went to the market and saw a wheat seller mixing sand into the wheat, adding ten to one hundred grams of sand for every kilogram of wheat. Bahlool approached him and asked, “How is life going?” The seller replied, “Very bad, both my wife and I are sick, and there’s no blessing in our life.”

Bahlool didn’t say anything and moved on. A little further down, he saw another wheat seller who, instead of sand, added twenty to thirty kilograms of extra wheat for blessings. Bahlool asked him the same question, “How is life going?” The seller replied, “Thank God, both my family and I are healthy, and our financial situation improves every day.”

Bahlool then went to Harun al-Rashid and said, “The market does not need an inspector. Everyone is deceiving themselves, and God will give them the response they deserve.”

In this story, Bahlool humorously illustrates how people deceive themselves and act dishonestly, suggesting that divine justice will deal with them rather than any external inspector being needed.