In the borderlands between Arabia and Syria, a band of robbers rushes from a fortress, attacking Zadig and his servant. They resolve to die fighting after realizing they are outnumbered. The chief brigand Argobad is impressed by Zadig’s bravery and calls off his men. Argobad invites Zadig into the fortress, promising not to seize his possessions.

Argobad takes to Zadig and invites him to join his gang. Argobad is a man of opposites: “There were no limits to his greed for plunder, or to his generosity to others; he was fearless in action yet almost gentle when bargaining, debauched at table, yet merry in his debauches, and above all the soul of frankness” (141-42). Zadig asks how he became a robber. Argobad explains he felt cheated working as a manservant, believing that the world belonged equally to everyone. After expressing this bitterness to an old man—who told him a story of an anonymous grain of sand that grew into the crown jewel of the King of India—Argobad resolved to become that jewel. He started robbing and soon surpassed his share of the world’s riches. He bribed, killed, or recruited his adversaries, including assassins sent to kill him by the grand vizier of Babylon.