The nobles' provisions. Some merchants did not deliver the quantities they had pledged to provide. Hussein Serri Pasha, who was the acting Governor-General before Gordon's arrival in Khartoum, seized this opportunity. He summoned those merchants and agreed with them that he would overlook half a qirsh per qintar, and they would pay him the full amount immediately. He then instructed Amin Al-Khazin to write them a receipt stating that these quantities had been delivered to him and placed in the treasury. Hussein Serri Pasha would then write on the receipt a transfer to the Egyptian treasury. The amount of this betrayal reached one thousand qintars of rusks, worth one and a half million qirsh, which is about fifteen thousand pounds. Then, events unfolded differently than expected. The supplies did not reach Khartoum, nor did the ammunition and provisions within it. The shortage began. Gordon believed that the treasury's rusks were in the official ledgers and papers, which was undoubtedly true until the news of the treasury's emptiness was announced. He arrested the provisions officer, along with one thousand notables and officials. It became clear to him that the perpetrator of this betrayal was Hussein Serri Pasha, the acting Governor-General. He vowed that Gordon was determined to summon him from Egypt to account for his sin. He believed this would not happen until after the Mahdist revolt ended and communications between Egypt and Sudan were restored. The government had paid one thousand riyals to Hamad Al-Talib and seven thousand riyals to Al-Nur Ibrahim Al-Jirifawi to supply them with grain, specifically durra, at four ardabs per ardab. Hamad Al-Talib traveled with the General's mission and was killed with it, and his agent for supplying baskets to the Khartoum warehouses did not succeed. As for Al-Nur Ibrahim Al-Jirifawi, he embezzled the money for himself, joined the Mahdists, and participated with them in the siege of Khartoum.