Story | Honesty Is The Best Policy

Once upon a time, there was a merchant who lived in Baghdad. One day, he lost his bag that had two hundred gold coins inside. He made an announcement by beating a drum, saying that if someone found his bag and returned it to him, he would reward them with fifty gold coins. A poor woodcutter, while going into the forest, spotted the bag lying on the path. He picked it up, counted the coins, and realized that it was the merchant's bag, with exactly two hundred gold coins. Being an honest person, he took the bag to the merchant.

The merchant recognized his bag and discovered that not a single coin was missing. However, the merchant himself was dishonest and a liar. He realized that he would have to give away fifty coins as a reward, so he came up with a plan to avoid it. He told the woodcutter, "The bag also had seven precious jewels in it. You are a dishonest man who took out the jewels. Bring back the jewels, or I will report you to the judge." The woodcutter saw through the merchant's trick, went to the judge, and filed a complaint against him.

In the court, the merchant continued to claim that the bag had seven missing jewels. The judge examined the bag and saw that it couldn't possibly fit a single jewel, let alone seven. The judge said to the merchant, "This bag only contains two hundred gold coins, and there's no space for any jewels. So this bag is not yours. Your bag must be bigger to hold seven jewels along with two hundred coins. Go and search for your bag." With that, the judge gave the bag with the coins back to the woodcutter, instructing him to use the coins as he pleased. The merchant ended up losing two hundred coins due to his dishonesty.