The Story about a Judge

4.8

Once there lived a judge. His name was Sheba. Everybody said that he was the cleverest judge of all.

"The king of the country heard so much about Judge Sheba that one day he said,

“Everybody says that Sheba is the cleverest judge of my country. I want to see him myself.”

The king put on some poor clothes, took a horse and went to the town where the judge lived.

On the way to the town he met a man. The man had no horse and was walking. “Poor man,” thought the king, “the weather is so hot, it is so far from the town, and he has to walk.”

“My man,” said the king, “you must not walk in such a hot weather; my horse is strong enough to carry us both.”

The man was happy, thanked the king, and they went to the town together.

When they came to the town, the man said that the horse was his. “How can you prove that it is your horse?” he said to the king, “even Judge Sheba will not be able to do it.”

“All right,” said the king, “let us go to Judge Sheba.” (“Now I shall see how clever Judge Sheba is,” he thought).

When they came to the judge, they had to wait for their turn; Judge Sheba was busy. He had some other cases.

The first case was a case of a student and a farmer. These two men brought a slave-servant with them, and each man said that the slave-servant was his. Judge Sheba listened to them, and told them to leave the slave with him and to come back next day in the morning.

The second case was a case of an oilman and a worker. Both men were very angry

“Oh, clever judge,” cried the oilman, “this man took my money from me. He came to my shop this morning, and it so happened that I was holding a gold coin in my hand, he quickly took my coin and put it into his pocket.”

“Do not listen to him, my judge,” shouted the worker angrily, “it is all nonsense what he tells you. I came to his shop to buy some oil, and when I told him that I had a gold coin in my pocket, he said that it was his coin.”

“Very well,” said Judge Sheba, “give this gold coin to me and come back to-morrow.”

Then the judge asked the king and the man to tell him about their case. When they told him their story, the judge asked them to leave the horse with him and to come back next day in the morning.

Next morning the king and the man came back to Judge Sheba. The student and the farmer, the oilman and the worker were already there.

Judge Sheba gave the servant-slave to the student, the gold coin to the worker, and punished the oilman and the farmer. Then he turned to the king and the man and said, “You must come to my stable. There are many horses there and you must show me your horse.”

They went to the stable. The king and the man showed him the same horse.

“Very well,” said the judge to the king, “you take back your horse, and I shall punish the other man.”

The king said, “Now I can see that you are a great and clever judge. You are right, it is my horse and the man took it from me. I am your king and I want to know why you think that the slave belongs to the student, and the coin to the worker.”

“Oh, my king,” said the judge. “That was easy. I took the slave to my house in the evening and asked him to clean the ink-pot and to make some ink for me. He did it very well, so I knew that he had been the student’s servant but not the farmer’s. The case of the gold coin was even easier. I put this coin into very hot water and saw that there was no oil in the water. So I knew that the oilman, whose hands were all dirty with oil, never had this coin in his hands.”

“It was very clever of you,” said the king, “but how did you know that it was my horse and not the other man’s? We both recognized the horse.”

“Yes,” smiled the judge, “you both recognized the horse but the horse recognized only you.”