70 Preface فَلَمّا جَهَّزَهُم بِجَهازِهِم جَعَلَ السِّقايَةَ في رَحلِ أَخيهِ ثُمَّ أَذَّنَ مُؤَذِّنٌ أَيَّتُهَا العيرُ إِنَّكُم لَسارِقونَYusuf AliAt length when he had furnished them forth with provisions (suitable) for them, he put the drinking cup into his brother?s saddle-bag. Then shouted out a crier: “O ye (in) the caravan! behold! ye are thieves, without doubt!”1Joseph’s plan was to play a practical joke on them, which would achieve two objects. Immediately it would put them into some consternation, but nothing comparable to what he had suffered at their hands. When the plan was unravelled, it would make them thoroughly ashamed of themselves, and dramatically bring home their guilt to them. Secondly, it would give him an excuse to detain Benjamin and bring their aged father into Egypt. He contrived that a valuable drinking cup should be concealed in Benjamin’s saddlebag. When it was found after an ostentatious search, he would detain the supposed culprit, and attain his object, as the story relates further on.