I was a young man at the time. Like many young men, I lived foolishly, and soon I hadn’t much money. “I must do something to get more money,” I told myself. So I sold my house and all my things for three thousand dirhams. With that money, I bought a lot of the best cloth and other goods. I took them to Basra. There was an Arab ship in the river there, and I spoke to its captain.
“We are going to sail next week,” he told me. “There will be six merchants with their goods on the ship, and we shall sail to the countries and islands of the Far East. There the merchants will sell their goods. They will buy the jewels and other rich things of the east, and they will sell them in their own countries when we come back here.”
“Can you take one more merchant?” I asked. And I added, “I have only a few boxes of goods. And I’ll give you most of the money I get.”

Otto-Classics Graded Readers Series are outstanding classics written by famous writers. The language and vocabulary in the books are controlled and simplified by specialist ELT authors and compilers according to Common European Framework so that they can be easily understood by new learners of English. 
Depending on the eight levels from A1 to B2+, the longer stories are divided into a number of chapters and every chapter has its own activities. Some of the activities in the books are meant to be done in pairs. You may work with a partner to solve problems and design projects that reflect not only your own thinking but also new ideas you and your mates will discover by working in groups.