Once upon a time there lived a man nicknamed Karp. He had no children for a long time, and he adopted an orphan boy. And later Karp himself had a son.
By the time the sons became adults, the parents had already died. The adopted son was cunning and greedy. Little by little, he wrested from his younger brother all the land they had inherited from their father. Relatives and neighbors considered this a family matter and did not interfere. But the younger brother became completely unbearable, and he called the older brother to court.
“After all, you are from the same family,” the judge told them, “how are you not ashamed to appear in court with your cases?”
“Worthy sir,” the younger brother answered him, “this man is called my elder brother, but in fact we are not related to him.” My father once adopted him, and now he has deprived me of my share of the inheritance. But if you look at it in fairness, I, as my own son, have more rights! “Nothing of the kind,” said the adopted son when it was his turn to testify, “I am my own son.” In addition, I am the eldest, I have the responsibility to perform the ritual of honoring ancestors, and this requires money. It is quite fair that I took a large share of the inheritance for myself.
Not knowing which of them was lying, the judge said that he would announce his decision later and ordered both complainants to wait in the courtyard.
Some time later, he sent them a dish of boiled rice and two pairs of chopsticks.
But he deliberately turned the sticks over. As the brothers began to eat, the judge began to watch them furtively. He saw that one of the brothers carefully turned the chopsticks before eating, and the other began to greedily gobble up the rice without even bothering to turn them over.
“This glutton, who does not know how to eat according to the rules, must be the adopted son,” thought the judge. But he did not rush, but decided to subject them to another test.
When evening came, the judge ordered dinner to be served to the brothers. There were two plates on the tray: on one of them there was a well-fried carp, on the other there was a small, inconspicuous fish.
This time the judge saw that one of the brothers, whom he suspected was his adopted son, immediately took up the plate of carp, while the other ate only from the second plate. The judge noted this. He immediately sent a guard for the brothers and began to interrogate them:
– Why did you choose the worst fish for yourself? – he asked his own son.
“I dare to report, worthy sir,” he replied, “my father’s nickname was Carp, and I could never touch a fish bearing that name.”
But the adopted son was silent, he had nothing to say. Seeing that his guess was confirmed, the judge ordered the guard to use his stick. Only then did the elder brother admit that he was not old Karp’s own son.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru