One man just built a new house. A stranger approached him and asked for shelter. The owner of the house agreed. So they began to live together. The tenant carefully counted how many beams were in the house, how many boards were in the floor, how many leaves were on the roof. He wrote all this down so as not to forget.
A month has passed. The owner of the house said:
- You lived in my house, it’s time to know the honor. Please, move somewhere else. My family is moving here.
- How so? - the tenant objected. - This is my home. You don't dare drive me out of my own home.
The owner and the tenant argued and argued and went to the judge. The owner of the house said:
“I built a new house and let this man live with me. He lived in my house for a whole month. And now, when I asked him to move, he refuses, and even claims that the house belongs to him.
The tenant said:
“On the contrary, I built a new house and let this man in.” If the house is really yours, then tell me how many beams there are in it, how many floorboards, how many leaves on the roof.
– I didn’t count. But the house is still mine. Then the judge intervened and asked the tenant:
– If you continue to claim that the house is yours, can you yourself name the number of beams, floorboards and leaves on the roof?
The tenant readily named all the numbers that he had written down long ago.
“He is probably the owner of the house. How else would he know all these numbers?” – the judge thought and decided the case in favor of the tenant. The owner did not agree with this decision and took the tenant to the king.
“It’s not for nothing that he remembered such details,” the king thought after listening to the tenant. Then he asked:
- Tell me, what lies under the piles?
“There’s nothing lying there,” the tenant answered with a bow.
“In the southeast corner the ground was very damp, so I placed wooden blocks under the pile,” the owner intervened.
The king sent servants to check whether the owner was telling the truth. When the logs actually turned out to be under the pile in the south-eastern corner, the king made a decision:
“So you are the owner of this house.” And the one who has counted all the leaves on the roof, but does not know what is under the stilts, is a clear deceiver, and he should be punished according to the law.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru