The Greatest Salesman in the World

The book opens with Hafid already advanced in age and owner of an immense fortune, calling in his accountant Erasmus to give away a good part of what he owned to the poor of the region. Before that, though, he sets aside a chest holding ten ancient scrolls and says he will keep it safe, hoping that one day someone will appear, he himself doesn't yet know who, ready to receive them. Only after this scene does the story go back decades in time, to explain how that old merchant got to where he was.

Decades earlier, Hafid was just a camel boy in the caravan of Pathros, the richest merchant in Damascus, growing up in poverty, responsible for tending the animals, carrying water, and sleeping out in the open, with no possessions and no family name worth anything in the city.

It was during this phase that Hafid fell in love with Lisha, daughter of Calneh, a rich and respected man. She came from a family of means, and a simple camel boy had no standing to even imagine asking for her hand in marriage.

Tired of waiting for a stroke of luck that never came, Hafid gathered his courage and went to ask Pathros for a chance, any chance, to change his life before age and resignation wiped out for good the hope of one day being worthy of Lisha. That request, made by a young man with nothing to lose, opened the door to everything that follows.

Pathros could simply have sent the young man back to the camels, but he saw plenty of willingness in him and decided to test Hafid before betting anything bigger on him. He handed over no chest and no scroll at that moment: just a single tunic, finely woven and very valuable, taken from his own stock.

The instruction was direct: Hafid was to take the tunic to Bethlehem and sell it for the best price he could get, on his own, with no help from anyone, within a few days. There was no purse of gold and no scroll at this stage, only the garment and the chance to prove he could negotiate on his own.

For Pathros, this was the real test before trusting Hafid with any greater secret of trade: to see how he behaved with few resources, face to face with strangers, far from the protection of the caravan.

Hafid spent three days trying to sell the tunic in the streets and markets of Bethlehem, offering it to merchants, travelers, and onlookers. He heard refusal after refusal, and watched the deadline Pathros had given him nearly run out without a single serious offer.

On the last night, with no hope left of completing the mission, he came across a young, humble couple sheltered in a cave used as a stable, behind a crowded inn. The couple was caring for a newborn with almost nothing to protect him from the cold that night.

Faced with the scene, moved by compassion, Hafid completely forgot the goal of selling at the best price: he handed over the tunic for free, without accepting a single coin, just so the baby would have something warm to be wrapped in. He went back to the caravan convinced he had failed the test, with nothing to show Pathros but empty hands.

On the way back, however, he noticed an unusually bright star that seemed to follow him the whole time. When he arrived and told Pathros everything, ashamed, it was that very star, and not a successful sale, that the merchant recognized as the sign he had been waiting for for years.