Storytelling: That No Good Sinbad

There's one particular inn in Balsora where all the captains like to gather and tell all the stories from the most recent voyages and tonight, with storms brewing that don't seem like they'll ever let up, has brought in an especially large crowd of sailors.

The first captain started, "You will not believe the luck we've been having this last month. It seems like the sea itself is trying to kill us! It's been one storm after the other and they just seem to be getting worse."

The next chimed in, "I know what you mean! It all seemed to start about a month ago too. Before then it was all smooth sailing."

"You know, I seem to remember picking up some odd traveler about a month. Somebad, Sinbush, Sungood, I can't remember his name," another captain added.

"Wait, are you talking about Sinbad? I've taken him on my ship too! He's the oddest man. He'll just drift off to sleep on a random island and get left behind but then he'll have the most insane stories when he finally turns up again," the first captain replied.

"Hey, at least your ship actually survived! When I took him on my ship we were hit by storms and I lost half my crew. Sinbad went overboard and maybe two months later he was back in town claiming to have narrowly avoided being eaten by cannibals, taught an entire kingdom how make saddles, was buried alive in a cave full of jewels, and finally escaped by following some kind of animal through the cave. I swear, this guy is the luckiest person alive but he curses everyone around him," remarked the second captain.

"Seriously? I don't buy it for a second! I bet he just floated around and got picked up by some boat!" another shouted.

"I don't know. He's just the luckiest idiot in the world. I took him on my boat ages ago and the idiot just had to get off and check every bit of land we went past. Well finally one day he goes on an island and decides it'll be a great idea to light a fire. We were only there for an hour; why would you light a fire? Anyways, he starts to light a fire, but it turns out it's a whale. The idiot gets flung off out of sight, but I say good riddance, you know? Well, about as soon as I say that he turns up at the port we're trying to pawn off all his crap at. He says he drifted for days, climbed a cliff, and became the guest of the king of the island," yet another captain added.

Sinbad and the whale, Source

"When are we just going to ban him from setting foot on anther ship?" one captain asked.

"Oh that won't do a thing!" said one bemused captain, "If you try to ban him, he'll just buy his own damn boat! And you know what happened? First voyage, he's says it got crushed by a giant rock dropped by an even bigger bird. Then, he says he was stuck on an island with an old man crushing his neck. You know what I say? He crashed his ship and got a stiff neck and now he's covering for it."

"Yeah, that's probably it," all seemed to agree.

"Let's just all agree, we are never, ever, going to let Sinbad on a boat ever again," the first captain said.

Author's Notes:
Throughout the story of Sinbad, something bad happens to everyone but Sinbad somehow makes it out okay. I thought it'd be interesting to look at it from the captains perspective, where Sinbad is actually this awful bad luck charm that you can just never get rid of.

Bibliography:
The Voyages of Sinbad, Source