Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t6.74

c4.t6.74

Elsewhere¹ we witness a curious suit between a villager and a townsman being decided by a judge. The townsman stood guilty of wrongful possession of some ploughshares belonging to the villager who, again, was charged for kidnapping the former's son. The townsman had produced this cause, that the ploughshares were devoured by the mice while the villager, an equal genius, had said that a falcon had carried the child off. The judge presses the townsman to tell the truth and, realising the mischief committed by both, he gives out the judgment: