Ch 04 On The Advantages Of Silence Story 08 Poem by Saadi Shirazi

Several officials of Sultan Mahmud asked Hasan Muimandi one day what the sultan had told him about a certain affair. He replied: ‘You must yourselves have heard it.’ They rejoined: ‘What he says to thee he does not think proper to communicate to the like of us.’ He answered: ‘Because he trusts that I shall not reveal it. Then why do you ask me to do so?’

A knowing man will not utter every word which occurs to him.
It is not proper to endanger one’s head for the king’s secret.