The King Found the Burglar
A destitute man came to the city in search of a livelihood. Fortunately, he found some work with rich merchants and made some money.
He converted all that money into gold and buried it in the woods. He did that daily to save his gold. One day he found that someone had stolen it.
Knowing this, he wanted to commit suicide in a river where the king was also having his bath. The king noticed that something was wrong with the poor man.
He asked the poor man, “why do you want to kill yourself?”
The poor man explained his situation to the king.
The king then asked him whether he left any mark on the treasure, then he answered, “Yes sire, I placed a wild cucumber plant over my treasure.”
“How did you confirm that you lost your gold since there might be many such plants in the woods?” the king questioned the poor man.
“No sire, that is the only wild cucumber plant in the woods, and the thief stole my treasure along with the plant and no one even knew that I buried gold under a wild cucumber plant.”
The king promised the poor man that he would get justice and soon after, the king went to his palace and told this story to his ministers in the kingdom.
The next day he summoned all the doctors in the kingdom. All the doctors presented themselves at the king’s private chamber.
Soon after, the king asked everyone, “who are your present patients, and what medicines did you prescribe them?”
Everyone answered, but nothing intrigued the king. At last, one doctor said something that fascinated the king.
He said, “sire, yesterday I gave some wild cucumber plant juice which is very rare in this part of the region to one rich merchant as a part of medication.”
“Where did you get this wild cucumber plant juice?” the king inquired.
“The plant was found by my servant in the woods after a great deal of searching, sire,” the doctor answered.
The king wanted the doctor’s servant at once and summoned him to the king’s private chamber.
The servant showed up before the king at once.
“What did you do with the gold which you found when you dug up the wild cucumber plant?” the king questioned the servant.
He said, “I kept the gold in safety at my house, your majesty.”
“That gold belongs to such-and-such a poor man; give it to him without delay,” the king commanded.
“Yes, your excellency,” said the servant.
The ministers were astounded and couldn’t comprehend what was happening in the chamber. The minister then asked the king, “how did you find it, sire?”
“It was simple, minister. My job was to find out who stole the gold out of the entire population. According to the poor man, no one knew that there was gold under the wild cucumber plant. No one uses a wild cucumber unless it is a doctor. All I had to do was find out which doctor used it in the city, so I called up every doctor,” said the king.
The minister said, “that’s okay, but, why did you leave the servant? Wasn’t he a felon?”
The king said, “no, he wasn’t. Had he stolen the gold, he would have fled the moment he found the gold. Above all, if he really cared about the gold, he would have thrown away the plant and escaped without caring about his doctor, but he didn’t.”
The minister was astonished by the king’s reasoning capabilities in the end.
The End!
If you are interested in reading one more folklore story, then here it is: