Long ago, there was a beautiful city called the City of Justice. The reason for its name was that its ruler was a king characterized by justice and was keen on equality among all his people. One day, one of his ministers went to him, sat with him, and began talking to him about the way he could spread love and equality among people.
Here, the minister suggested that the king hang a huge bell in the city, through which the people could pull the rope and ring the bell, so the ruler would know that one of his subjects had been subjected to injustice. He would send someone to help the oppressed recover his rights and remove the injustice he had been subjected to.
The idea was received with great welcome by the ruler. He summoned his chief judge and charged him with the task of hanging the large bell. He requested that the rope hanging from the bell be long enough so that the smallest child in the city could reach it if he was subjected to injustice. The trustworthy judge agreed to the ruler and did what the ruler commanded him.
But with time, the rope broke. They tried to find a substitute for it but failed. One of them suggested that they tie the broken rope so they could bring another substitute from the nearest place to them. They sent to the nearest orchard to them and brought a long branch from a grapevine tree.
In this city lived an extremely stingy man who had a poor horse. The stingy man begrudged him food and drink until the poor horse almost died of hunger. One day, the stingy man released the horse. The poor one went trying to find something to satisfy his hunger but found only some small grass that did not serve the purpose. The skinny, hungry horse went searching for food for himself anywhere.
The horse kept walking searching for food. The heat was severe that day, so everyone stayed in their homes until that severe heatwave passed, except the poor horse who wandered the streets until he got lost and did not find anything to eat. During his wandering, he spotted the grapevine branch hanging from the bell, but he could not reach it easily. Whenever he tried to cut it and ring the bell, the rope end would break, and the horse would fall from extreme hunger and fatigue?
As soon as the sound of the bell rang, the city’s residents realized that there was an oppressed person in their city. They all went out to see who had rung the bell, at their head the ruler and the chief judge. The people gathered around the horse answered that the poor horse was the one who had rung the bell, for his owner had begrudged him food and drink until he almost died of hunger. The ruler became extremely angry and ordered the chief judge to bring the stingy man.
The guards went to the stingy man and found him sitting counting his money. They told him the chief judge wanted him. He feigned illness and pretended exhaustion, telling them he was an elderly man and asking them to bring a horse to carry him to the chief judge. The guards mocked him and told him that if he had kept the horse that had served him for years, he would have found someone to convey him without trouble. They dragged the stingy man to the city square. When all the city’s residents arrived, they looked at him with extreme anger, at their head the ruler and the chief judge.
The ruler immediately asked him about what he had done to the poor horse. The old man told him that he had become an elderly man and could not spend his money on this horse. The judge became angry, but the stingy man confessed his sin and asked to get his horse again. However, the judge refused to give him the horse again and ruled that justice here required withdrawing half of the stingy man’s wealth and spending it on food and drink for this horse. At this time, the people shouted: Long live justice… Long live justice.