One day, a long time ago, three people met on the road and moved on together. One carried boiled meat in a bundle of large palm leaves, the other carried cassava bread wrapped in the same leaves. And the third had nothing with him, only a dog that was trotting nearby. They walked and walked, finally got tired and stopped. The two began to unwrap their packages.
“I have meat, but no bread to go with it,” said one.
“I have bread, but no meat to go with it,” said another.
And the third said:
“I have neither bread nor meat, only this dog.” But when three people go the same way, it is customary to share food among themselves.
They all sat down together and began to eat boiled meat and cassava bread. Pretty soon all they had left of their food was the leaves in which it was wrapped. These leaves were thrown further into the bushes, and the dog, who was sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the people to finish eating, rushed after them to lick and clean up the remains of the food.
People went on their way. They walked some distance, and then the dog's owner said:
- My dog has disappeared somewhere. I'm afraid he can't find us. I'll come back and look for him. Wait for me.
They agreed:
- Go get your dog. “We’ll wait,” they said and sat down by the road.
The man returned to the place where they ate, but did not find the dog there. He headed further into the bushes where the leaves had been thrown, and then he saw his dog. She was sitting on the skeleton of an elephant. The man drove her away from there, pulled out the elephant tusk and returned to his comrades who were waiting for him.
“My dog found an elephant that died in the forest,” he told them. “As soon as we reach the nearest village, I will sell this tusk and pay you for your meat and your bread.”
But the one who had the meat answered angrily:
“You have no right to sell this tusk.” He is part of the elephant that belongs to me. If I had not carried boiled meat with me and thrown leaves into the bushes, neither you nor the dog would have ever found the elephant. So this elephant is mine!
Then the second one said:
- How do you know whose leaves the dog ran after, mine or yours? Of course, behind mine, in which cassava bread was wrapped. No, you have no right to the elephant. He's mine!
And the third replied:
- Both of you are talking about nothing. The dog found the elephant, my dog, but why it ran does not matter. The elephant belongs to me.
But the other two did not want to agree with him.
“We shared our food with you and your dog,” they said, “and did not demand any payment.” If we had not fed you, you would not have been able to move on at all, and we, of course, would have found the elephant even without you. We don’t demand anything from you for what you ate, but you also have no rights to the elephant.
So they argued harder and harder and could not agree on anything. No one in the nearest village could judge them either.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru