A beggar found a leather purse that someone had dropped in the marketplace. Opening it, he discovered that it contained 100 pieces of gold. Then he heard a merchant shout, “A reward! A reward to the one who finds my leather purse!”
Being an honest man, the beggar came forward and handed the purse to the merchant saying, “Here is your purse. May I have the reward now?”
“Reward?” scoffed the merchant, greedily counting his gold. “Why? The purse I dropped had 200 pieces of gold in it. You've already stolen more than the reward! Go away or I’ll tell the police.”
“I’m an honest man,” said the beggar defiantly, “Let us take this matter to the court.”
In court the judge patiently listened to both sides of the story and said,“I believe you both. Justice is possible! Merchant, you stated that the purse you lost contained 200 pieces of gold. Well, that's a considerable cost. But, the purse this beggar found had only 100 pieces of gold. Therefore, it couldn't be the one you lost.”
And, with that, the judge gave the purse and all the gold to the beggar.
一個乞丐在集市上撿到了一個某人遺失的皮錢包。打開錢包一看,發現里面有100枚金幣。然后他聽到一個商人大聲叫喊:“有重謝?。≌l發現我的皮錢包有重謝啊!”
作為一個誠實的人,乞丐走過去把錢包遞給商人說:“這是你的錢包。我現在可以得到重謝了嗎?”
“重謝?”商人一邊貪婪地數著他的金幣,一邊嘲諷地說,“為什么(要重謝)?我丟失的錢包里有200枚金幣。你偷走的金幣比我要給你重謝的還要多。走開,不然我要叫警察了?!?/p>
“我是個誠實的人!”乞丐反駁道,“我們到法庭評理去!”
法庭上,法官耐心地聽完雙方的陳述,然后說:“我相信你們兩個人。法律是公正的!商人,你說你丟失的錢包里有200枚金幣。哇,這可是相當大的一筆錢啊。但是,這個乞丐發現的錢包里只有100枚金幣。因此,這個錢包不可能是你丟的那個。”
法官說完之后,就把錢包和所有的金幣都判給了乞丐。