When they came to Joseph he made his brother his guest, and said: "I am your brother. So do not grieve for what they had done." 69 Then, while Joseph was having their provisions loaded, he put his drinking-cup in his brother's saddlebag. And then a herald cried: "Travellers, you are thieves." 70 They answered and turned towards them, “What is it you cannot find?” 71 They said: We miss the king's drinking cup, and he who shall bring it shall have a camel-load and I am responsible for it. 72 'By Allah' they said, 'you know we did not come to do evil in this land. We are not thieves' 73 They said, 'And what shall be its recompense if you are liars?' 74 [The brothers] replied: "Its requital? He in whose camel-pack [the cup] is found - he shall be [enslaved as] a requital thereof! Thus do we [ourselves] requite the doers of [such] wrong. 75 So he searched their saddle-bags before his brother's, then produced the cup from his brother's bag. That is how We planned an excuse for Joseph, for under the law of the king he could not detain his brother unless God so willed. We raise the status of whom We please. Over every man of knowledge there is one more knowing. 76 ۞ They said: "If he steals, there was a brother of his who did steal before (him)." But these things did Joseph keep locked in his heart, revealing not the secrets to them. He (simply) said (to himself): "Ye are the worse situated; and Allah knoweth best the truth of what ye assert!" 77 They said, 'Mighty prince, he has a father, aged and great with years; so take one of us in his place; we see that thou art one of the good-doers.' 78 He answered: "May God preserve us from [the sin of] detaining any other than him with whom we have found our property - for then, behold, we would indeed be evildoers!" 79