Bansir

The Man Who Desired Gold
Bansir, very skilled chariot maker, is upset over a unknown source. He has stopped working on his chariot for his unknown “wealthy customer”, presumably the king, and his wife is starting to give him disapproving looks. In his unenthused stated he emphasizes the clear “mixture of gravure and squalor” of the castle and rich men lands and his, along with many others, shabby homes. Also how the city takes great pride in the hanging gardens by making even the rich move to make way for the men who manually carry water from the river to be poured over it: key point later in the chapter. He then gets a visit from his best friend Kobbi, the musician. Who taunts him for just sitting around not finishing his have finished chariot
Seeing something is truly bothering his friend Kobbi ask what was troubling him and stopping him from, his work. Bansir then states that he had a particular dream the night before of him being so rich that he could share and spend as much as he wanted knowing he would still have money for him and his family to not worry. He then expresses that this dream was upsetting him because they have worked long and hard “yet to [have known] the joys of wealth”. Then goes along to remind his friend that much of them is shown by their wealth, as well as their work. How he is finally unblinded by the endless unhappy rut the have been walking for half a lifetime. Reading on you start to see that Bansir is more about reward in hard work while Kobbi leans toward the easy way of getting rich. This is shown when the long line of “water bearers” walk through Babylon “bent under” heavy goatskins of water to the gardens. Kobbi states that the man leading them with only a bell is a “prominent man of his county” while on the other hand Bansir empathizes with the men carrying the loads on their back saying they are also good men, no better than themselves. They then start to remember their old friend Arkad, who is claimed to be
Kobbi, Bansir and some of their loyal came to him and wanted to know what miracle was blessed upon him or the secrets to become wealthy because they were baffled. All of them had studied under the same teachers as each other, seemed to be equal in both mind and body, he had not had much more work capability, yet Arkad attained far more money and success than anyone. Unsure as to why this was, they approach Arkad and ask him. Arkad’s answer to these questions was that they had “either failed to learn the laws that govern the building of wealth, or you do not observe them.” He then goes to explain that explains that when he was younger, he looked around and noticed all the fine things that wealth could provide and decided that he wanted this for himself. He knew that the only way to obtain this wealth he desired was to learn how. When he was young, he worked as a scribe. He worked very hard, and like Kobbi and Bansir, he had little to nothing to show for it. Then one day Algamish, the money lender, came in and needed a copy of the Ninth Law in two days. He said he would pay two coppers for it. Arkad tried but he failed to make the law and the money lender was angry. Arkad then bribed the money lender stating that if he finished the law by the morning, the money lender would teach him how he could obtain wealth.