The Good Book

by A. C. Grayling

  13. Whereupon the fox said, ‘If you are guided by your wife in this, your fate will be like that of the silversmith. Do you know that story?’

  14. And so he told the following story to the leopard.

  Chapter 5

  1. In ancient times, said the fox, there lived a very skilful silversmith, who made beautiful settings for gemstones,

  2. But he worked very slowly, so that although his reputation was great, his wealth was small.

  3. One day his wife said to him, ‘We have not grown rich even though you are so good at your craft.

  4. ‘But I have a plan; and if you will listen to me I will make us the wealthiest residents of this city.’

  5. So the silversmith put down his tools to listen to his wife, who spoke as follows.

  6. ‘Our lord the king has a new wife, very young and beautiful, and he dotes on her. Make a silver image of her, and I will take it to the palace as a gift.

  7. ‘We will be rewarded with far more than the value of the silver, and your fame will bring people from far away, who will pay twice for what you make.’

  8. But the wife had not reckoned with the jealousy of the king, who could not abide the thought that another would dwell on his wife’s beauty, and make an image of it;

  9. So that when the silversmith’s wife presented the silver statuette at the palace, he was enraged, and ordered the silversmith’s arrest;

  10. And when the silversmith was brought before him, the king ordered his right hand to be cut off, so that he could no longer work at his trade.

  11. Every day thereafter the silversmith wept, until he and his wife at last died of hunger.

  12. ‘This tale’, said the fox, ‘teaches us never to listen to our wives’ advice in matters of livelihood.’

  13. The leopard shuddered to hear this tale; but the fox continued to press home the advantage he saw that he was gaining.

  14. ‘Have you not heard,’ he asked, ‘what the great Socrates said when asked why he had married a wife so short and thin? “In order to have of evil the least amount,” he replied.

  15. ‘Have you heard what he said on seeing a woman hanging from a tree? “Would that all trees bore such fruit.”

  16. ‘Have you heard what he replied when one said to him, “Your enemy is dead”? He replied, “I would rather hear that he was married.”

  17. With these ill tales and false reports the fox steeled the leopard against his wife,

  18. And the leopard commanded his wife with anger to bring the cubs to the paradise of fatted deer and green meadows; and there they camped by the water.

  19. The fox bade them farewell, his head laughing at his tail.

  20. Seven days passed, and in the deep night of the eighth day the waters rose in a customary flood of the place, and engulfed the leopard family where they lay.

  21. Even as the leopard struggled under the water of the flood he lamented, ‘Woe is me that I did not listen to my wife,’ and he and all his family died before their time.

  Chapter 6

  1. After hearing Charicles tell these stories the stranger said, ‘I have shared my bread and cheese and ruby-red wine with you, that I grew in my own vineyard;

  2. ‘From these tokens of friendship you can see I am no fox who seeks to do you harm. I understand your reluctance;

  3. ‘But if you wish to learn something new, and to profit from opportunity, you must have courage, and take a risk.’

  4. So with reluctance, but persuaded by the stranger’s words, Charicles agreed to accompany him, and they started out together, riding on asses.

  5. The stranger said to Charicles, ‘Carry me, or I will carry you.’ Charicles said, ‘What do you mean? We are both riding on an ass. Why should either of us carry the other? Explain your words.’

  6. The stranger replied, ‘The explanation is given in the story of the peasant’s daughter and the sage.’ And he told Charicles the tale, as follows.

  7. There was once a king with an extensive harem of wives and concubines. One night he dreamed that he saw a monkey among his women, and woke with a start.

  8. He was very troubled, and thought, ‘This is none other than a foreign king who will conquer my realm and take my harem for his prize.’

  9. The king called one of his sages and asked him to find out what his ominous dream meant.

  10. The sage set out on a mule, and rode into the countryside, where after a while he met an elderly peasant, also on a mule, travelling in the same direction.

  11. He said to the peasant, ‘Let us travel together,’ and the peasant agreed. And as they set forward the sage said, ‘Carry me, or I will carry you.’

  12. ‘But our mules carry us both,’ said the peasant, amazed. ‘What do you mean?’

  13. ‘You are a tiller of the earth, and you eat earth,’ said the sage. ‘And there is snow on the hills.’

  14. Because it was the height of summer, the peasant laughed at this, and began to think the sage a madman.

  15. They passed through the midst of a wheat field, with wheat growing on each side. ‘A one-eyed horse has passed here,’ said the sage, ‘loaded with oil on one side and vinegar on the other.’

  16. They saw a field rich in abounding corn, and the peasant praised it; ‘Yes,’ said the sage, ‘such a field is to be praised until the corn is eaten.’

  17. They went on a little further and saw a lofty tower. ‘That tower is well fortified,’ said the peasant. ‘Yes,’ said the sage, ‘fortified without, if it is not ruined within.’

  18. As they rode they passed a funeral. ‘I cannot tell whether the man in the coffin is alive or dead,’ said the sage.

  19. The peasant was now convinced that the sage must be mad, to say such unintelligible things.

  20. They arrived at the village where the peasant lived, and he invited the sage to pass the night with him and his family.

  Chapter 7

  1. In the dead of night the peasant told his wife and daughter of the foolish things the sage had said.

  2. ‘No,’ said the daughter, ‘they were not foolish things; you did not understand the depth of his meaning.

  3. ‘“Carry me, or I will carry you” signifies that he who beguiles the way with stories, proverbs, riddles and songs, will make the journey light for his companion.

  4. ‘The tiller of the earth eats food grown from the earth. The snow on the hill is the white hairs on your head, father; you should have replied, “Time caused it.”

  5. ‘He knew that a one-eyed horse had passed, because the wheat was eaten on one side of the path only.

  6. ‘And he knew what the horse carried, for the vinegar had parched the dust where it spilled, but the oil had not.

  7. ‘The corn of the field you passed would already have been eaten if its owner was poor. The lofty tower was not well fortified if there were division or argument among those within.

  8. ‘And as for the funeral: the dead man lived, if he had children; but was truly dead, if he left no progeny behind.’

  9. At this the peasant and his wife marvelled, and understood; and unbeknown to them the sage, who was not sleeping as they thought, heard the daughter’s words.

  10. In the morning the daughter asked her father to give the sage some food she had prepared.

  11. She gave her father thirty eggs, a dish of milk, and a whole loaf of bread, bade him eat and drink his fill, then take the remainder to the sage.

  12. ‘Ask him when you give him the remainder,’ she said, ‘how many days old the month is; ask him, is the moon new, and is the sun at its zenith?’

  13. The peasant ate two eggs, a little of the loaf, and sipped some of the milk, then carried the rest to the sage and gave it to him.

  14. When he returned to his daughter he laughed, and said, ‘Surely the man is a fool; for it is the mid-month and the moon is full;

  15. ‘But when I gave him the remainder of the food, he said, “The sun is not full, neither is the moon, for the month is two days old.”

/>   16. ‘Now I know for certain that the man is wise,’ said the daughter, and she went to the sage and said, ‘You are seeking something: tell me what it is and I will answer you.’

  17. So the sage told her of the king’s dream, and the daughter answered, ‘I know the answer. But you must take me to the king himself so that I can tell him.’

  18. When the sage and the peasant’s daughter came before the king, she said, ‘Search your harem; you will find among the women a man disguised as one of them,

  19. ‘For he is the lover of one of the women, and hides among them to be with her.’

  20. The king’s guards searched and found that it was true; and brought the offenders before the king. He said to the peasant’s daughter,

  21. ‘Before I punish them, I wish to know what gift I can give you to express my thanks: ask what you will, and if it is agreeable to me, you shall have it.’

  22. The peasant’s daughter said, ‘I ask two things. First, these two have transgressed because of love. I ask you to let them go, for can love ever be a crime that should be punished as other crimes?’

  23. The king granted her request, sparing the erring couple’s lives but banishing them from the kingdom for ever.

  24. Then the peasant’s daughter gestured towards the sage and said, ‘For my second request, I would have this man for my husband, if he will take me,

  25. ‘Because wisdom is the fountain of all good things, and is worthy of love itself; and this man is wise.’

  26. Now because the sage had heard the peasant’s daughter interpret all his sayings, he had loved her from that moment;

  27. So he said to the king, ‘And I would marry her for the same reason; for she is wise, and worthy of love in herself.’

  28. So the peasant’s daughter and the sage were married, and between them raised many wise children, and gave the king counsel whenever he asked.

  Chapter 8

  1. Charicles was pleased with this story, and thanked the stranger for telling it; and he began to think the stranger was good after all, to honour wisdom with a tale such as this.

  2. ‘You have carried me,’ he said, ‘with an instructive story, and made the journey light.’ It was nightfall, and they were approaching a city, hoping to find an inn.

  3. When Charicles recognised the city they were entering, he wept, and said, ‘Here in this place lived one who was a dear friend of mine;

  4. ‘He died some years ago, but not so many years that my eyes can help filling when I think of him.

  5. ‘His name was Adasnes. He was a judge, and a good man. I will tell you a story to illustrate his cleverness.’ And Charicles told the following tale.

  6. A man once came to Adasnes in distress. His only daughter was betrothed to a young man, who with his father had visited the bride’s house on the eve of the wedding to see her trousseau and the gifts that had been made ready there.

  7. They had come accompanied by a musician who lived nearby, and who played his harp as they sat and enjoyed the rich things made ready for the wedding,

  8. And other guests and visitors came too, who wished to salute the engaged couple, and wish them well for the next day.

  9. The gathering made merry until midnight, and then departed, leaving the bride and her family to sleep.

  10. When the bride and all the household rose the next morning, they found that the trousseau and all the gifts had been stolen.

  11. The bride and her family were in despair, for every last penny of what they owned had been lavished on the trousseau and gifts.

  12. When Judge Adasnes heard this report he went back with the bride’s father to the house to inspect the scene of the robbery.

  13. He saw that the walls of the garden in which the house stood were too high to scale.

  14. He saw that there was only one possible place of entry, a crevice in the wall where an orange tree grew, covered with a thorny creeper that guarded the crevice like a fence.

  15. Adasnes summoned the bridegroom, and the neighbours, and the servants in the neighbours’ houses, and all who had been at the celebration that previous night;

  16. All the menfolk who had been at the celebration he gathered, and instructed them to roll up the sleeves of their shirts to the elbow, and their trousers to the knee.

  17. When they had all done so Adasnes pointed at the musician, and at his servant. ‘Arrest these men,’ he said, ‘for they are the thieves.’

  18. On the arms and legs of the musician and his servant were scratches from the thorny creeper round the orange tree, each like a message of guilt to the judge’s eye.

  19. Seeing that he was caught, the musician’s servant fell to his knees and confessed to the crime that he and his master had committed.

  20. Adasnes said, ‘The greater crime is committed by he who leads another into crime. A mitigation of punishment is owed to him who confesses freely, and is repentant.’

  21. They searched the musician’s house and found all the stolen goods, which were safely restored to the bride in time for the wedding.

  22. Adasnes exiled the musician’s servant, but sent the musician to prison, without his harp so that he could not charm the guards with music to let him free.

  23. ‘Such was the wisdom of my friend Adasnes the judge,’ said Charicles, and he brushed a tear from his eye.

  Chapter 9

  1. ‘Tell me more of the judge’s wisdom,’ the stranger asked, ‘because tales of wisdom, along with tales of courage and kindness, are among our best guides in life.’

  2. ‘Then I will tell you how Adasnes judged the case of the necklace and the nobleman,’ Charicles replied, and recounted as follows.

  3. There was once a broker of this city, a man of tried honesty, who was entrusted with the care of a beautiful and very valuable necklace,

  4. Whose owner asked him to sell it for five hundred pieces of gold. A nobleman holding high office under the king came to the broker’s shop,

  5. Saw the necklace, admired it, and coveted it; and offered three hundred gold pieces for it.

  6. The broker told him that the owner required five hundred gold pieces, and would accept nothing less.

  7. ‘Come with me to my house,’ the nobleman said. ‘Bring the necklace to show my wife, and I will consider the price.’

  8. The broker went with the nobleman to his house, and waited at the gate when the latter went indoors.

  9. There he waited until dusk, and then long into the night; but no one came out to him, or answered his ringing on the bell.

  10. After a sleepless and troubled night he went back to the nobleman’s mansion and rang the bell.

  11. This time he was admitted. ‘Buy the necklace for the price asked,’ he said to the nobleman, ‘or return the necklace to me.’

  12. ‘What necklace?’ asked the nobleman, feigning surprise before those who stood about them in the reception hall. ‘I know of no necklace. You are trying to trick me; leave at once.’

  13. So the broker went to Adasnes the judge, and laid the case before him. Adasnes sent for the nobleman, and when he had arrived, he instructed him to remove one of his shoes, and then to wait in another room.

  14. Adasnes gave the shoe to the nobleman’s servant, who had been standing outside, and said, ‘Take this to your master’s wife, and say, My master asks for the necklace he brought home to you yesterday, so that he can show off its beauty to his friends.’

  15. The servant went, and the nobleman’s wife, seeing the shoe and therefore confident that the message was from her husband, gave the necklace to the servant.

  16. In this way the theft was proved, the necklace restored to the honest broker, and the nobleman punished for his crime.

  Chapter 10

  1. ‘Worthy judge,’ said the stranger, ‘who makes the truth come to light. This comes about by understanding the nature of men.’

  2. ‘True,’ Charicles said, ‘and nothing shows this better than the story of how Judge Adasnes dealt with a certain serv
ant and a rich man’s son. The story is as follows.’

  3. There was a very wealthy merchant of this city, who had an only son. The son said to his father one day, ‘Father, send me on a voyage, that I might learn to trade, to see foreign lands, and to talk with men of wisdom, and learn from my experiences.’

  4. Pleased with this request, the father bought a full-bottomed ship, filled it with quality goods, and sent his son abroad with steady companions and sound words of advice.

  5. He himself remained at home with his servant, whom he trusted and who held the second place in his affection after his son.

  6. Some years after the son had gone abroad, with only rare messages to tell of his wanderings, the merchant was seized at the heart, and died before he had directed how his property was to be divided.

  7. The servant, by now passing himself off as the merchant’s son, took possession of everything, and lived thereafter as a wealthy man.

  8. Ten years passed, and the real son returned, his ship freighted with wealth many times greater than his father had given him on departing.

  9. But before the ship had weathered the treacherous cape beyond which the harbour’s mouth lay, a sudden storm blew up,

  10. And drove the ship onto the rocks, where it foundered, and everything was lost, goods and lives all, except for the son himself,

  11. Who struggled ashore, with nothing but the wet rags in which he had escaped death.

  12. He went to his father’s house, and entered; but the servant drove him away with harsh words, denying his identity, and calling him a beggar and imposter;

  13. Though in truth the servant knew who he was, but he had no intention to share the old merchant’s wealth with anyone; and was determined to claim himself the merchant’s son.

  14. The real son went to Adasnes the judge to lay his case before him. Adasnes said, ‘Bring the merchant’s heir before me too, who also says he is the son,’ and the servant was summoned.

  15. Then Adasnes said, ‘Go to the merchant’s grave, and dig up the bones; and bring them here to be burnt, as a posthumous punishment for making no will, and leaving his property to be a cause of strife.’