Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies

A con artist, Muhammad Ali is the deuteragonist of the story. Described by himself and the narrator as old and gray-haired, Muhammad Ali resides, or at least works, in the shantytown erected between the bus compound and the British Consulate. He makes a living scamming women seeking passage to England. He is well-accustomed to his “work” and therefore very knowledgeable about what happens in the Consulate.

Muhammad Ali undergoes a change as he is entranced by Miss Rehana and her beautiful eyes. Compelled by what he claims is “fate” to approach her, he later offer his services to her for free and then finally reveals that he has a British passport—something he apparently has never before presented to women seeking his counsel.

Though Muhammad Ali is duplicitous, he sees himself as a fraud who cannot help it: He has to make a living somehow and does not take moral responsibility for his actions. First appearing as a sage-like figure, he transforms first into an elderly trickster and finally into the recipient of the story’s lesson when Miss Rehana “tricks” him as she does the Consulate.

The narrator describes the lala guarding the British Consulate’s gate as bearded and wearing a turban and khaki uniform with gold buttons. Operating as an extension of the Consulate, this lala is the only agent of the Consulate to whom the reader is introduced; his surliness toward visitors reflects the Consulate’s combative attitude toward those seeking passage to England, although his marginally friendlier reaction to Miss Rehana implies the effect she has on people and foreshadows the success of her own mission at the Consulate. He later appears attempting to calm the Tuesday women crowding the gate to get in.