Thirty gold coins

Thirty gold coins

　Once upon a time, there was a greedy and selfish man named David. One day, he lost a small bag with 30 gold coins¹ in it. He and his workers searched everywhere, but could not find it.

　A few days later, a girl found the bag. The girl was the daughter of one of the workers of David. The worker immediately went to his master. He handed the bag to David and told him how his daughter found it.

　After counting the gold coins David said that ten of them missed. He screamed at the worker, “There were 40 gold coins in this bag. You stole my coins!”

　The worker was shocked to hear this. The poor man pleaded for his innocence. But David did not accept his story and decided to take the matter to the court.

The judge patiently heard both the sides. The clever judge knew that David was lying.

　Everyone in that place knew about David and his nature. Soon, the judge made his judgment.

　“Since David lost a bag that had 40 gold coins and the bag found by the girl had just 30, it is obvious that the bag that was found does not belong to David. It was lost by someone else. If anyone finds a bag of 40 gold coins, I will declare that it belongs to David. As there are no reports about the loss of 30 coins, I order the girl and her father to take those 30 coins as a token of appreciation² for their honesty!”

Notes:

1. coin n. 硬币 2. appreciation n. 欣赏