The brothers asked their father to let them take Joseph out to the desert to play and promised to watch him. Jacob, not thrilled with the idea knowing how much the brothers disliked Joseph, hesitated. Ṭabari comments that Jacobs's excuse was that a "dhi'b" (, wolf) might hurt him. But the brothers insisted. When they had Joseph alone they threw him into a well and left him there, They returned with a blood stained shirt and lied that he had been attacked by a wolf, but their father did not believe them, as he was a sincere man who loved his son.