Stolen Pleasures

By profession, Salih was a thief, by avocation, Salih was a Romeo. Last week his skilled shuttling between both talents was the talk of U.S. oilworkers in the Aramco base at Dhahran.

One night recently in the nearby port of Khobar, Salih met his latest Juliet at her home, secure in the belief that Juliet's husband was out of town. Suddenly they heard the husband's approaching footsteps. The wife had the presence of mind to scream, "Thief! Thief!" and Salih, catching on, pretended that he was trying to escape. Salih was captured and arraigned for judgment before the local ruler, Emir Saud ibn Jiluwi, who decreed the traditional Arabian punishment for a habitual thief: public amputation of his right hand. Salih calmly accepted the verdict and did not even flinch when the Emir's men chopped off his hand at the wrist--for he knew that he had got off lightly. If he and Juliet had been charged with their actual crime--adultery--both would have been tied into a jute bag, set afire, tossed to the ground from the highest tower in Khobar and then left to die.

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