And when they entered in the company Yusuf, he seated his brother close to him and said, “Be assured, I really am your brother – therefore do not grieve for what they do.” 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, turning towards them, said: "What is it that you have missed?" 71 They said: "We have missed the (golden) bowl of the king and for him who produces it is (the reward of) a camel load; I will be bound by it." 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: And what shall be the penalty for it, if ye prove liars? 74 They said: his meed shall be that he, in whose pack it is found, shall himself be recompense thereof. Thus we recompense 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 was a thief before.' But Joseph secreted it in his soul and disclosed it not to them, saying, 'You are in a worse case; God knows very well what you are describing.' 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 He replied, "God forbid! How could I take someone in place of the thief? In doing so I would be committing injustice." 79