The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 1 plus 8 plus 3 plus 3 letter word A THOUSAND AND ONE
A
T
H
O
U
S
A
N
D
A
N
D
O
N
E
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.