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 Turning back they asked: "What have you lost?" 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 They said, "By Allah, you have certainly known that we did not come to cause corruption in the land, and we have not been thieves." 73 [The Egyptians] said: "But what shall be the requital of this [deed] if you are [proved to be] liars?" 74 They replied, "The penalty should be that he in whose saddlebag it is found, should be held [as bondman] to atone for the crime. That is how we punish the wrongdoers." 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 ۞ 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: 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 "May God forgive us," he said, "if we hold any one but him with whom we found our property, or else we would be unjust." 79