Once a certain city thief, in order to get into someone else's house, undermined the wall. The wall collapsed and the thief broke his arm. Then the thief came to the Negus (the title of the emperors of Ethiopia) and began to complain:
- Oh negus! I, your city thief, was digging up the wall of one house, and it collapsed, and I broke my arm. It is clear that the owner of the house built the wall somehow.
Negus was a great madman, so he ordered the owner of the house to be called, saying:
“Indeed, it was because of him that my city thief broke his arm.”
When the owner of the house arrived, the Negus asked him:
“Why did you build the house so poorly that my thief broke his arm because of you?”
- It's not my fault. “It was the mason who built the walls poorly,” answered the owner of the house.
Negus ordered to call a mason.
- Why did you build the walls so poorly? “Because of you, my thief broke his arm,” the Negus said to the mason.
- I have nothing to do with it. The wall collapsed because the roof was poorly covered. “The one who covered the roof is to blame,” said the mason.
Then they called the roofer, and the Negus said:
“You didn’t roof the house well, so because of you, my thief broke his arm.”
- Oh negus! “It’s not my fault,” the roofer replied. — When I was covering the roof, a beautiful girl passed by, and I stared at her. That's why it turned out to be a bad roof. This girl is to blame for everything.
Then the extravagant Negus got tired and got ready to leave. But before leaving, he ordered:
- If you see a short man, hang him!
And since this thief was the smallest among those present, he was captured and hanged. That's what they say.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru