When they presented themselves before Joseph, he took his brother aside to himself and said: "Verily I am your own brother Joseph; so do not grieve over the manner they have treated you." 69 So when he furnished them with their provisions, (someone) placed the drinking cup in his brother's bag. Then a crier cried out: O caravan! you are most surely thieves. 70 They said, turning towards them: "What is it that ye miss?" 71 They said: We have lost the king's cup, and he who bringeth it shall have a camel-load, and I (said Joseph) am answerable for it. 72 They said: By Allah! you know for certain that we have not come to make mischief in the land, and we are not thieves. 73 They [Yusuf's (Joseph) men] said: "What then shall be the penalty of him, if you are (proved to be) liars." 74 They said: his meed shall be that he, in whose pack it is found, shall himself be recompense thereof. Thus we recompense the wrong-doers. 75 So he [Yusuf (Joseph)] began (the search) in their bags before the bag of his brother. Then he brought it out of his brother's bag. Thus did We plan for Yusuf (Joseph). He could not take his brother by the law of the king (as a slave), except that Allah willed it. (So Allah made the brothers to bind themselves with their way of "punishment, i.e. enslaving of a thief.") We raise to degrees whom We please, but over all those endowed with knowledge is the All-Knowing (Allah). 76 ۞ [As soon as the cup came to light out of Benjamin's bag, the brothers] exclaimed: "If he has stolen - well, a brother of his used to steal afore-time!" Thereupon Joseph said to himself, without revealing his thought to them: "You are far worse in this respect, and God is fully aware of what you are saying. 77 They said: Aziz! verily he hath a father, an old man very aged; so take one of us in his stead; verily we behold thee to be of the well-doers. 78 He said, 'God forbid that we should take any other but him in whose possession we found the goods; for if we did so, we would be evildoers.' 79