For Bread Alone - Mohamed Choukri

É uma história de várias pobrezas, sendo a pobreza das decisões do narrador uma das mais interessantes.

We were in the Café Chato, and I had just lost my last centimo playing aaita. When we had begun to play, twenty-five pesetas left, and el Kebdani told me: This isn’t your lucky day. Stop playing. Don’t worry about me, I told him sharply. I can manage myself and my money. Now, a little after noon, el Kebdani had just lent me five pesetas. I bought three pesetas’ worth of kif and paid two for a glass of green tea.

O pão, de resto, parece ser o menor dos problemas do narrador.