One day Lai really wanted honey. He decided to go in search, but thought: “If I leave, who will graze my cows?” He called one man to him and said to him:
“I have to go away, and my cows will be left unattended.” Could you guard them?
“I can,” he answered. - What will I get for this?
“I’ll give you honey for this,” said Lai.
“Okay,” he agreed. - Just come back quickly.
Lai went to look for honey. He got hold of two pots, returned in the evening and ate all the honey himself, but gave nothing to the shepherd.
- Where is my honey? - the shepherd asked him.
“Today I only got hold of one pot,” Lai answered, “and I took it for myself.”
- What about me? - he got angry.
- Wait, tomorrow I will go for honey again, and you will get your pot.
The shepherd did not answer. But when Lai set off again the next day, he drove his cows to his home. At night Lai returned, did not find his cows and went to the shepherd.
-Where are my cows? - he shouted.
- What cows?
- My cows are still with you.
“No, I haven’t seen your cows,” answered the shepherd.
Lai returned to his home and began to think: what to do? In the morning he again went to the shepherd and asked him:
-Where are my cows?
“I have your cows, but you won’t get them,” he answered.
- Why?
- Because you didn't give me honey. I grazed your cows for two days, but I didn’t get any honey.
Then Lai went to the Sultan and asked them to judge. And the Sultan knew that Lai was a great cunning man. He listened to Lai, ordered to call the shepherd and asked her how it was. He replied:
“I grazed his cows for two days.” He promised me honey for this, but he gave me nothing.
The Sultan thought and said:
— Cows belong to the one who grazed them. And you, Lai, can eat the honey that you did not pay to the shepherd. Let's end this matter.
- You are a bad judge! - Lai shouted at the Sultan.
Then he was driven out of the Sultan's house, and he went his way, and his cows remained with the shepherd.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru