The merchant’s clerk replaces the sugar purchased by the philandering wife with gravel, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1560
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a busy market scene split in two: on the left, a woman and merchant embrace in a private room; on the right, a clerk in blue swaps her bag of sugar for gravel. This tiny painting is one page from a 52-night story cycle told by a parrot. The artist packed every inch with sharp, bright details—no shadows, just clear lines and flat colors—so the moral lesson pops off the page. To see more stories like this, look up mughal india, court of akbar (reigned 1556–1605).
