•  Once, in the royal city of Isfahan , there lived an old woodcutter and his young daughter. Everyday, the woodcutter went out to the desert to chop wood that was sold in the market.
He earned just enough money for them to survive.

•  One morning, his daughter asked to eat date cakes. So the woodcutter chopped extra wood to earn the money, but he came home later than expected.

•  It was dark and too late to go to the marketplace.
His daughter had already bolted the door of their house
so the woodcutter had to sleep outside.

•  The next morning before the sun rose, the woodcutter decided to go out again to get even more wood to buy even more cakes.
But once more, he returned late and his house was locked,
so he had to sleep outside. This happened again the next day and in the dark, the woodcutter wept on his doorstep.

•  Suddenly, a dervish in a long green robe and cap appeared. The dervish said it was the time of Mushkil Gusha, the Remover of Difficulties, and shared his food with the woodcutter.
The dervish told the woodcutter that his good fortune would only continue if the woodcutter helped someone in need and
shared the story of Mushkil Gusha every Friday eve.

•  As soon as the dervish vanished,
the woodcutter's daughter swung open the door of his house.
She had been worried for days and fussed over him as they feasted on the many date cakes he had bought.

•  One morning, the daughter strolled through a public park.
A carriage stopped and a princess looked out at the daughter.
She asked the daughter to become her handmaiden
and the daughter accepted.

•  The daughter and the woodcutter became rich through the princess' gifts. They even bought a nice house and the woodcutter no longer had to work. But the woodcutter forgot what the dervish told him.

•  A month later, the princess took off her necklace
before going for a swim in the royal garden.
The princess hung the necklace on a branch overlooking the water, but forgot to retrieve it after she finished swimming.

•  Days later the princess looked for the necklace
but could not find it.
She accused the woodcutter's daughter of stealing it and
said that the woodcutter and his daughter would be punished.

•  Soldiers came to arrest the woodcutter and
locked him in the stocks in front of prison.
Some people taunted him while others threw him scraps of food.
The woodcutter suddenly remembered the dervish and
realized he had not shared the story of Mushkil Gusha even once.

•  A packet of chickpeas and raisins
suddenly landed by the woodcutter.
He called out to a passing beggar boy to come and
share his food
while he told the boy the story of Mushkil Gusha.

•  The beggar boy thanked the woodcutter for the food and stories, and went on his way. A rich merchant stopped the beggar boy recognising the boy to be his long lost son.
The good fortune of Mushkil Gusha had worked again!

•  The next day, the princess went to the garden for a swim and spotted her necklace hanging on the tree branch.
She realised that the woodcutter's daughter
did not steal it after all.