Three years after taking office as Director of our Institute Seton Lloyd was collaborating with the late Nuri Gökce, Director of the Archaeological Museum at Ankara, in the excavation of sites in the plain of Harran. One week's work at Sultantepe–now generally accepted as the site of an Assyrian city named Huzirina–proved memorable for the discovery of a small library of cuneiform tablets and especially of one particular tablet which introduced to Assyriology an entirely new genre: the Tale of the Poor Man of Nippur. It is fifteen years since this entertaining text was first translated in the volume in honour of the Institute's founder and first Director. In the intervening years significant contributions have been made, especially by V. Julow of Debrecen, Hungary, and J. Faragó of Cluj, Rumania, to the study of the tale in its comparative aspects. Some of these publications may not be easily accessible, and as the authors have had the kindness to send offprints to the present writer, it may be of interest, not least to the excavator of the tablet, to show in greater detail, in a volume in his honour, how the tale compares with similar tales from various times and places.