Once upon a time, there was a selfish man. He liked everything to be his own. He could not share his belongings with anyone, not even with his friends or the poor. One day, the man lost thirty gold coins. He went to his friend’s house and told him how he lost his gold coins. His friend was a kind man. As his friend’s daughter was coming from an errand, she found thirty gold coins; when she arrived home, she told her father what she had found. The girl’s father told her that the gold coins belong to his friend and he sent for him.
When the selfish man arrived, he told him how his daughter had found his thirty gold coins and handed them to him. After counting the gold coins the man said that ten of them are missing and might have been taken by the girl as he had forty gold coins. He further commented that he will recover the remaining amount from him. But the girl’s father refused.
The man left the gold coins and went to the court and informed the judge what had taken place between him and the girl’s father. The judge sent for the girl and her father, and when they arrived asked the girl how many gold coins did she find. She replied,
“Thirty gold coins.” The Judge then asked the selfish man how many gold coins did he lose and he answered,
“Forty gold coins.” The judge then told the man that the gold coins did not belong to him because the girl found thirty and not forty as he claimed to have lost and then told the girl to take the gold coins and that if anybody is looking for them he will send for the girl. The judge told the man that if anybody reports that they have found forty gold coins he will send for him.
The man took no time to confess that he had been lying and that he lost only thirty gold coins. the judge had already realised the trick and went out of his chamber cool, but not listening to the man’s sympathy generating appeals.
