“When I first saw The Wizard of Oz, it made a writer of me,” Rushdie once said. He drew on his interest in that story when he wrote “Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies,” which alludes to the famous slippers that offer Dorothy an opportunity to go home, away from the magical and foreign place that is Oz. “Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies” was published in the collection East, West, which explores the ways in which people of Eastern ethnicity, especially those from India and Pakistan, experience conflict when they confront Western cultures. The collection is divided into three groups of stories—the East, the West, and the combination of both. “Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies” uses unreliable third-person narration to celebrate Eastern values through a tale about an Indian woman who will use trickery to avoid marriage to a man in Great Britain because she prefers to stay at her home in India. Miss Rehana, a beautiful Indian woman, so beautiful that she captures the attention of all men who look at her, is on her way to get her papers to go to London. Muhammad Ali, an expert advice-giver and trickster, smitten by her beauty, gives her free advice as to how to avoid the insults and red tape of immigrating to England, offering to arrange for her a free passport to bypass this. After listening to him patiently, Rehana instead uses his advice to avoid getting the permits she needs. Her fiancé in England was chosen by her parents rather than by herself, and as it turns out, he is an old man. She prefers to reject the Indian societal pressure to marry and instead continues her life as an independent, single woman working as an ayah (nanny) to three children in Lahore. The story rejects the notion that England is a preferable place to live over India but equally rejects the Indian practice of arranged marriage as well as the expectation that all young women must marry. As a result, the author does not simply celebrate Indian culture; he depicts it in a realistic, nuanced way.

Every Tuesday, women arrive from different parts of India to apply at the British consulate for a permit to enter England, where they will meet with their fiancés or husbands selected by family members through the tradition of arranged marriages. Muhammad Ali makes sure he is always there to meet the bus of “Tuesday women” because he “specialize[s] in advising the most vulnerable-looking of these weekly supplicants,” charging them a fee for his “services,” which he purports will simplify the immigration process. In fact, he merely cons the women desperate to get to England.

When he sees Miss Rehana climb off the bus, however, Muhammad Ali is struck by her uncommonly beautiful eyes. Approaching her, he offers his services for a small fee. “Good advice is rarer than rubies,” she tells him, adding, “But alas, I cannot pay,” for she is not a wealthy woman. He continues to urge her to accept his help but she continues to decline because she does not have the money. Normally, Muhammad would walk away or try harder to convince her to pay for his services; however, Miss Rehana seems different than the other women he makes it his business of conning. Her beautiful eyes overpower him so much that, in spite of his best instincts, he finds himself offering her his advice for free. “I have been drawn to you by Fate,” he tells her, so “for you my advice is free,” even while he says to himself, “I am going...