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 had furnished them with their supplies, he put the [gold measuring] bowl into the bag of his brother. Then an announcer called out, "O caravan, indeed you are thieves." 70 They turned to them and asked: "What is it you have lost?" 71 They said, “We cannot find the king’s cup, and for him who brings it is a camel-load, and I am its guarantor.” 72 Joseph's brothers said, "We swear by God, as you know, that we have not come to spread evil in the land and that we have not committed any theft." 73 They said: what shall be the meed of him, if ye are found liars! 74 They said, “The punishment for it is that he in whose bag it shall be found, shall himself become a slave for it; this is how we punish the unjust.” 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 is a thief, a brother of his had [also] committed theft before him." But Joseph kept his secret and revealed nothing to them. He said [to himself], "Your deed was worse. God best knows the things you speak of." 77 They said, "O exalted one, he has a very aged father, take one of us in his place. We can see that you are a very good man." 78 He replied: 'Allah forbid that we should seize any but he with whom our property was found, for then we should be harmdoers' 79