One man lost his sheep and went looking for them.
He walked and walked and saw a woman working in the field, and on her back there was a child tied in a sack.
The man stopped and said with respect:
- Hello, woman! Are all your days good?
And then he asks:
“Have you seen my sheep somewhere nearby?” - And he points to the field with his hand. “If you tell me where they went, I’ll give you my lame sheep.”
And the woman was deaf. She thought that this man wanted to know if her field was large. So she pointed her finger at a tree that grew in the distance and said:
“That’s where my streak ends.”
And the owner of the sheep was also deaf. He thought that the woman was showing him where the sheep had gone, and he quickly walked towards the tree.
And it so happened that he actually found his lost sheep there.
The owner was very happy. He took the lame sheep and carried it to the woman.
“Thank you, woman,” he said, handing her the sheep. “I found my sheep in the very place you showed me.” Take this sheep from me as gratitude.
And the deaf woman thought he was saying, “You hurt my sheep!” And she got very angry. She said:
- I didn’t touch your sheep. I've never even seen her.
The owner of the sheep guessed that the woman was angry about something and thought that she was saying: “I don’t need a lame sheep! Give me a good sheep!”
Then he also got angry and said:
- You want too much! Let's go to the judge, let him judge us!
He took her hand and led her.
Two deaf people came to the judge.
The judge took his judicial seat and said:
- Tell me, what is your business?
The owner of the sheep told him everything in order: how he lost his sheep, how he approached a woman who was working in the field and asked her if she had seen his sheep. The woman showed him where his sheep had gone, and for this he promised her a lame lamb. And now this woman does not agree to take a lame sheep, but wants the biggest and healthiest one.
“That’s why I came to you, so that you judge us fairly.”
And the judge was also deaf. He waited until the owner of the sheep had finished speaking, and when he closed his mouth, he turned to the woman and said:
- Well, let’s listen, what can you answer to this?
And the woman also began to tell everything from the very beginning: how she was weeding the field, how a man approached her and asked if her field was large. How she showed him the tree where her strip of land ended, and he left. And then he suddenly returned and began shouting that she had maimed his sheep. But she doesn’t even know him and has never seen his sheep.
The woman fell silent.
And the judge also sat and was silent. And what could he say when he did not hear a word of everything that was said to him?
Suddenly he saw a child on the woman’s back.
“Aha,” thought the judge, “everything is clear now. This woman came to sue her husband, who beats her and does not give her money to feed the child.”
He turned to the owner of the sheep and, pointing his finger at the child, said:
- You wasted so many words in vain! Since the child is yours, that means you must feed him. Don't you dare beat your wife! Understood? Well, now both of you go!
And he showed them the door, because he wanted to get rid of them as quickly as possible.
The woman saw that the judge was saying something about her child and was very scared. She thought that the judge was threatening to take her child away from her.
And the owner of the sheep saw that the judge was pointing to the door, and thought that the judge was calling the guards to put him in prison. So he was also very scared.
But the judge was afraid that they would start asking him for something, and waved his hands at them so that they would leave immediately.
Then both started running in different directions and ran until they lost sight of each other.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru