AND WHEN [the sons of Jacob] presented themselves before Joseph, he drew his brother [Benjamin] unto himself, saying [to him in secret]: "Behold, I am thy brother! So grieve thou not over their past doings!" 69 Then, when he had equipped them with their equipment, he put his drinking-cup into the saddlebag of his brother. Then a herald proclaimed, 'Ho, cameleers, you are robbers!' 70 They turned back and 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 certainly know that we did not come to act corruptly in this land, nor are we those who steal." 73 They said: what shall be the meed of him, if ye are found liars! 74 They said: "The penalty should be that he in whose saddle-bag it is found, should be held (as bondman) to atone for the (crime). Thus it is we punish 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 ۞ 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 thou great one! Behold, he has a father, a very old man: detain, therefore, one of us in his stead. Verily, we see that thou art a doer of good!" 78 He said: Allah protect us that we should seize other than him with whom we found our property, for then most surely we would be unjust. 79