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 And when he provided them with their provision, he put the drinking-cup in his brother's saddlebag, and then a crier cried: O camel-riders! Lo! ye are surely thieves! 70 They said while approaching them, "What is it you are missing?" 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 God, you [ought to] know we have not come here to cause any trouble in the land. We are not thieves!" 73 They said: 'What shall be the recompense, if you prove to be lying' 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 [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 stealeth, then surely a brother of him hath stolen afore. But Yusuf concealed it in himself, and discovered it not unto them. He said: ye are in evil plight, and Allah is the Best Knower of that which ye ascribe. 77 They said: "O exalted one! Behold! he has a father, aged and venerable, (who will grieve for him); so take one of us in his place; for we see that thou art (gracious) in doing good." 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