In one of the distant villages of India, a farmer returned one evening while holding two bulls in his hand. He had bought them from the market and decided to benefit from them. The farmer was happy because he wouldn’t graze from others anymore, and with the presence of those bulls, he could cultivate his land by himself. The farmer was also planning to gain money by grazing the bulls for his farmer colleagues.
The next day, the farmer left his house with the bulls, went to the field, and cultivated it completely. After that, he left the bulls grazing around him and eating grass. While he was like that, he slept under a large tree, and sleep overcame him.
During that, a thief was nearby. He saw the farmer sleeping and the bulls eating the green. He found it a convenient opportunity to steal the bulls. After cutting their rope, he led them in front of him. At that moment, the farmer woke from his sleep and saw the thief escaping with the bulls.
He ran immediately and caught him by his neck, saying to him: Who are you, oh thief, and how dare you steal my bulls? The thief said: What foolishness, those bulls are mine, as I bought them from the market yesterday.
The farmer was amazed and wondered at the thief’s lie, who was trying to deceive him for his bulls. So he took the thief to a neighboring village and raised a claim there. But the thief was extremely clever. He came forward with a counterclaim against him.
The judges asked from each of them to present witnesses to the truth of his speech. The farmer presented his witness that he had bought the bulls only yesterday, so he didn’t see the bulls, and consequently, there was no one who would know them. The thief also failed to present witnesses to prove his speech. The judges decided at that moment to go to the village wise man.
There was a clever, intelligent man whom all witnessed for his cleverness and lightness of mind. After the judges presented that case to him, the wise man directed his questioning to the farmer and the thief. He started with the thief first, when he said: What is the food that the bulls ate today in early morning? The thief said: Barley and vegetables.
After that, the wise man directed to the farmer who said: I am a poor man, and thus I can’t present them anything but grass. After that, he gave the bulls a drink of water to help them in vomiting. The bulls vomited their stomachs, and grass appeared in them. The wise man learned that the farmer was the truthful one and the thief was the liar.
The wise man said to the thief: Stealing is a bad habit that you must abandon. It can lead you to many problems and maybe prison and death. The thief promised after doing those thefts again and left. The wise man adjured him to never touch others’ money.
And he relied on himself to gain money. As for the farmer, he returned to his land happy and satisfied with the return of his bulls. He decided not to sleep again except after he grazed his bulls well, so he wouldn’t fall into more troubles with thieves.