The narrator and his wife, shop owners in the ancient times of the Middle East awaiting the Medes' invasion, realise that a group of lepers have entered their store to buy food. The lepers try to plead for mercy, saying that the Stewards have stopped leaving food outside the city; but the narrator's wife is enraged and calls down the guards. The people of the city gather to stone the lepers to death, and the narrator takes part. He tries to rationalise it by saying they only followed the law, but that night, he wakes up crying out for mercy.
