"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."
- Isaac Asimov
Once upon a time, a rich merchant lost a bag full of gold coins. Looking everywhere but not finding it, he finally hired a herald to walk around the city and tell everyone that he will reward the honest finder with 100 gold coins. Not long after the herald finished delivering the rich merchant’s message, a poor farmer showed up on a merchant’s doorstep.
“Here merchant, I believe that this is your lost bag of coins” he told the rich man. Filled with delight, rich merchant grabbed the bag and immediately started counting the coins. After he counted it all, he suddenly saddened, since he remembered that he had to give 100 coins to the farmer as promised. After some thought, he had an idea how to keep the coins and swindle the honest finder.
“I see that you have already taken your 100 coins my good man,” he told the farmer “There were 800 gold coins in this bag and now there are only 700. You have done well. Thank you!”
Poor farmer was very surprised to hear this, more hurt by the lie than not getting the promised reward. He started swearing that he never even opened the bag and that the brought it as he found it. Unfortunately, the rich merchant insisted that there were 800 coins in the bag and now only 700. Not being able to reach an agreement, they went to the city judge, each one hoping to receive favorable verdict.
After they both swore, and each told his version of the story, the wise old judge, knowing the rich merchant well, understood what was going on here and told them that he could judge this case easily. “You are both right!” he told them. “You, merchant, have lost bag with 800 gold coins and you, farmer have found a bag with only 700 gold coins. So, this is my verdict:
“Farmer will this bag with 700 gold coins and keep them at home until somebody who has lost 700 coins does not show up. If nobody shows up for a month, than you get to keep all the coins. “
“You, merchant, unfortunately, you can only wait until somebody who has found your bag with 800 gold coins shows up.”
3 comments:
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sometimes life is like this . when u treat people good and be kind to them , they not appreciate and facts they bite you . well , i believe this type of fellow will get his punishment soon .
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