He trades a month of his pension and a prized "Wiclif Bible"[1] for the book and hides it on a bookshelf behind his copy of One Thousand and One Nights.

In the end, realizing that the book is monstrous, he briefly considers burning it before fearing the possibility of the endless supply of smoke suffocating the world.

Instead, he goes to the National Library where he once worked (like Borges) to leave the book among the basement bookshelves, reasoning that "the best place to hide a leaf is in a forest."

[2] The story was adapted by the Saudi filmmaker Bader Al-Homoud in his online film[3] and was selected as an official honoree in the 18th Annual Webby Awards in 2014.

[4] The Dutch composer Michel van der Aa created for the 2015 Holland Festival a digital interactive song cycle based on this story, with Kate Miller-Heidke as performer.