Gold Coins
and a Selfish Man
Sam was a greedy
and selfish man. He always desired to have lots and lots of money and never
hesitated to cheat others to make money. Also, he never wished to share
anything with others. He paid very low wages to his servants.
However, one day,
he learned a lesson that changed his life forever.
It so happened
that one day, a small bag that belonged to Sam was missing. The bag had 50 gold
coins in it. Sam searched high and low for the bag, but could not find it.
Sam’s friends and neighbours also joined in the search, but all their efforts
were in vain.
After a couple of
days, the ten year old daughter of a man working for Sam found the bag. She
told her father about it. Her father identified the bag as the one that was
missing, and immediately decided to take it to his master.
He gave the bag
back to his master Sam, and asked him to check whether the bag had 50 gold
coins. Sam was exultant to get the coins back, but he decided to play a trick.
He shouted at his worker, “there were 75 gold coins in this bag but you gave me
only 50! Where are the other coins? You have stolen them!”
The worker was
shocked to hear this and pleaded his innocence. Selfish and greedy, Sam did not
accept the worker’s story, and decided to take the issue to court.
The judge heard
both the sides. He questioned the daughter and the worker about the number of
coins they had found in the bag, and they assured it was only 50.
He cross-examined
Sam and Sam replied, “Yes my lord, I had 75 gold coins in my bag, and they gave
me only 50. Hence, it is quite obvious that they have stolen 25 coins!”
The judge then
asked, “Are you sure that your bag had 75 coins?”
Sam nodded
vigorously.
The judge then
made his judgment.
“Since Sam lost a
bag of 75 gold coins and the bag found by the girl had only 50 coins, it is
obvious that the bag that was found does not belong to Sam. It was lost by
someone else. If anyone finds a bag of 75 gold coins, I will declare that it
belongs to Sam. As there are no complaints about the loss of 50 coins, I order
the girl and his father to take those 50 coins as a token of appreciation for
their honesty.
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