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Once upon a time, Baghdad was ruled by a Caliph by name Mustafa. One day, he overheard some of his courtiers discussing about a wise judge in his empire who speedily dispensed justice.. There was no person in the entire land who complained that he was wronged by the judge. The common people respected the judge a great deal, whereas, the criminals feared him the most. The Caliph decided to himself find out the truth by disguising himself as a merchant. He rode a horse and travelled to the city where the wise Qazi held court everyday. Once inside the city, the Caliph was approached by a beggar for alms. The Caliph handed the beggar a generous sum. But, the beggar insisted that he drop him on his horse to the market place. The Caliph asked the beggar to climb behind him on his horse. On reaching the market place, the Caliph asked the beggar to get down from his horse as he had reached his destination.
But, the wily old beggar insisted that it was the Caliph who should get down for the horse belonged to him. Soon, there was a heated exchange of words and a crowd gathered to hear their arguments. Since the people could not decide they took them to the Qazi’s court. The Caliph was happy that an opportunity had presented itself to approach the Qazi and get to know his judicial skills. The crowd accompanied both of them to the crowded courtroom and left them in the court after the Qazi’s assistant registered the complaints from both the parties.
As the Caliph stood in a corner waiting for his turn, he found that the judge was attending to a quarrel between a farmer and a writer about a slave. They both claimed the ownership of a slave who was dumb. The Qazi heard both sides patiently. At length, he directed the complainants to leave the slave boy with him for the night and return to the court for his verdict on this case.
The next case was a quarrel between a butcher and an oil-merchant. They both claimed, and accused the other was guilty of cheating him out of a certain sum of money, which belonged rightfully to them. The Qazi heard their arguments. In the end, he asked the butcher and the oil-merchant to leave the bag of golden coins with him for the night and return to the court to hear his verdict on this case.
The officer of the court then announced it was the turn of two men who had picked a quarrel over a fine Arab horse, each claiming that it belonged to him. He asked them to present their arguments so that he may judge between them about the real owner of the horse.
The beggar pleaded his case before the Qazi in a convincing manner, and accused the merchant of trying to rob him of his horse. The Caliph who was in disguise then presented himself before the judge and truthfully narrated before him the entire turn of events as they had happened and accused the beggar of trying to take away his horse from him by force. The Qazi heard their case patiently and asked them to leave the horse in his stables for the night, and return to the court the next day to hear his judgment on this case.
The next day the complainants from the previous day presented themselves before the Qazi. First, it was the turn of the writer and the farmer. The Qazi asked the writer to come forward and told him the slave rightfully belonged to him. He asked the court officer to punish the farmer with 50 stripes for lying before a court of law.
Next, he called the butcher and the oil merchant. He gave the butcher the bag of gold coins and ordered the oil merchant to be punished with two score lashes so that he may remember not to be dishonest in the court. The merchant was arrested and sent for punishment.
Finally, it was the turn of the Caliph who was still in his disguise, and the beggar. He asked them to follow him to the stables to recognize the horse among several others, which were tied up there. He first asked the Caliph to point out his horse. The Caliph did it without any hesitation, and he was ordered to go into the court room to wait for him. Next, it was the turn of the beggar, who went up to the horse with great confidence and recognized it as the Caliph had done. The judge asked the beggar to return with him to the courtroom.
In the court, the Qazi called the Caliph and told him that the horse rightfully belonged to him, and ordered that the beggar should be whipped with 50 lashes for wronging the man who tried to do good to him. The beggar was immediately arrested by the court officer, and led out of the court.
Now, the Qazi turned to the Caliph and asked him to go to the stables to take possession of his horse. But, the Caliph waited on the spot until all litigants had left the court. At last, the Qazi turned to him and asked him about the reason for not going to stables to pick up his horse. Was he not satisfied with his judgment?
At this point, the Caliph revealed to the Qazi his true identity and told him that he had traveled to the city after hearing the marvellous tales that people related about his fairness and flawless judgments.
On hearing this news, the Qazi came forward and bowed low and kissed the hand of his master. The Caliph commanded him to tell him how he had arrived at his verdicts in the courtroom within such a short span of time.
It was then, the Qazi decided to reveal the wisdom behind his judgment to the Caliph. He told him that he had in the first case ordered the slave to fill in his pen fresh ink from the inkstand. The slave had done the task carefully several times in the night without spilling a drop of ink. The perfect actions of the slave - who was dumb but not deaf - had made the Qazi arrive at the conclusion that the slave truly belonged to the writer. In the case between the butcher and the oil-merchant, he had noticed that the hands of the oil-merchant were heavily greased with oil in the court. So, he had dropped all the gold coins in the bag in a vessel containing water for the night. In the morning, when he got up, he could not find any traces of oil floating on the top of the water and at this he concluded that the bag of gold coins belonged to the butcher. In his (caliph’s) case, both of them had recognized the horse correctly, but when the Caliph had approached him, the horse had thrust his head forward, and immediately responded to his touch whereas when the beggar had approached him, he had laid back his ears and shied away from his touch. Then, he knew the horse was truly the property of the merchant, and he was without a doubt, its master!
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