And there came some travellers, and they sent their water-boy who let down his bucket into the well. He cried out, “Oh, what a great find! Here is a boy!” And they took him secretly ˹to be sold˺ as merchandise, but Allah is All-Knowing of what they did.
Explanation
These readings convey the same meaning with slightly different grammar. It is common for such expressions to contain a personal pronoun suffix, as in the second reading. The first reading may simply be a lightened form of that [Makki]. *NB: various readers pronounce each of these with imālah.