The thief of the cotton rolls

  

Once there lived a cotton trader. He had to deliver cotton rolls to the country of China. He had to travel a great distance to reach his destination. He got tired on the way and slept under the shade of a statue of Buddha.

He kept his bundle of rolls beside him while sleeping. When he woke up his cotton rolls were missing. He went to the judge of the city and told him his problem.

The judge told everyone “As this man was sleeping under the statue of the Buddha the statue is the culprit. We must go and arrest that statue”.

All the people were left dumbstruck. The judge and a few men went to the statue, lifted it and brought it to the house of the judge. There were many more people than the day before.

Many people were laughing at the decision of the judge. The judge called all the people who were laughing at his decision. 

He told the people “I had made my decision and the king has made laws that whoever laughs at my decision must be punished. So, these people deserve punishment”.

“They must bring a bundle of cotton rolls from their houses or else they will be arrested”. So, the next day all of the people who were ‘punished’ brought a bag of cotton rolls each.

All the bags were checked secretly inside the judge’s house. One of the bags was the merchant’s. The man who had brought the merchant’s bag was arrested.

 The merchant got his bag back and was happy. Then the judge told all the people why he arrested the statue and gave those people punishment. All the people praised the judge’s wisdom and went back home.