In Rumi’s poem, The Touchstone, Iblis asked, “Can you tell a lie from the truth, you who are filled with illusion?”

Muawiya answered, “The prophet has given a clue, a touchstone to know the base coin from the true. He has said, ‘That which is false troubles the heart, but Truth brings joyous tranquility.’ ”

When I discovered your coins were fake, I refused to accept them. You now spend your coins elsewhere. You pass your coins off to others who know you committed fraud, know you continue to commit fraud and yet they accept your forgery? Your scheme cost me almost everything. You still try to steal from me.

I examine coins more thoroughly these days. I spend them. I invest them. I melt them down. I check for seams, run tests, and scratch the surface.  Then I check my heart.

Rumi says in The Masnavi:

“Fools buy base coins from their likeness to real coins.
If there were no genuine coins current in the world,
How could coiners succeed in passing false coins?
If there were no truth, how could falsehood exist?
Falsehood derives its plausibility from truth.
‘Tis the desire of right that makes men buy wrong;
Let poison be mixed with sugar and they eat it at once.
If wheat were not valued as sweet and good for food,
The cheat who shows wheat and sells barley would make no profit!”

Because of you, I know worthless currency.  Because of you, I know true value.