The Crystal Fish

A young man, done a certain boatman a kindness was presented by him with a tiny crystal fish.

 

He lost it and, in his despair at losing such a rare and beautiful object, was incensed when he saw another man around whose neck was a coed on which hung a crystal fish.

 

The youth took the man to court, and had him convicted of theft. At the last moment, when asked if he had anything to say before conducted to prison, the man said:

 

‘Ask any boatman of this country – we all have such emblems, and mine is my own. It does not belong to this youth. I have two eyes and a mouth too, but they are not his either!’

 

‘Why did you not speak up before?’ asked the magistrate of the boatman.

 

‘Because there is more merit for all mankind if the truth is arrived at by the exercise of sense by all parties from the beginning, than if one has to prove something which might just, after all, not be capable of proof.’

 

‘We must all learn, however,’ remarked the judge

 

‘Alas!’ said the boatman, ‘if learning is considered to be dependent upon the production of proof, we only have one-half of knowledge, and we are surely lost!’

 

The Kishtiwanis, to which School this boatman belonged, were noted for their habit of emphasizing that people spend most of their time either jumping to conclusions or else taking no notice at all of facts.

~ by Shaykh on March 21, 2008.