A certain man, suspecting his neighbors of stealing his wallet, brought them to Judge Afandi.
The neighbors did not admit guilt. Then Afandi gave each of them a stick of the same length and said:
“Tomorrow you will all come to me with these sticks, and I will establish which of you is guilty: the one who stole the money will have his stick lengthened by a quarter overnight.”
The suspects took their sticks and went home. Night fell, and those whose conscience was clear went to bed quietly. But the thief did not sleep and thought, overcome with fear: “By tomorrow my stick will increase by a quarter, and I will be exposed.”
He calmed down only when he shortened his stick with a knife just as much as it should have grown. By morning the stick had not grown, and when everyone gathered again at Afandi’s, he ordered the convicted thief to return the money to the owner. But the thief objected:
—Can this court be called a Sharia court if the verdict is handed down with a cane?
Afandi replied:
“Be grateful to me that I forced you to confess with a stick without ever hitting you with it.” What would you say if I, like the padishah, forced you with blows of the cane to confess to a crime that you, perhaps, did not commit?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru