The Lost Camel
Once there were two merchants. They had a camel. The camel was lost. They made every effort to trace the camel but in vain.
On the way they met a passerby. They asked him about the camel. He replied that he had not seen their camel but he knows that their camel was blind of one eye. His one front tooth was missing. He was also lame in his left foot. The camel was loaded, on the right side there were the bags of wheat and to his other side, he carried tins of honey. Now all these things were cent per cent correct. The merchants were happy and asked him to give them the whereabouts of the camel but the man again said that he had not seen the camel. They thought he was joking and requested him to tell them where the camel was. But the man sweared that he had not seen the camel.
Now the two merchants got annoyed. They caught hold of him and took him to Qazi, the judge. When the Qazi asked him about the camel he again repeated the same to him also. The Qazi asked how he knew so exactly about the camel when he had not seen the animal. The man explained, ‘Your Majesty, the camel ate grass on the left side only. The imprints of the left foot of the camel were definitely faint as compared to the imprints made by the right foot. Again the camel left one tuff of grass in the middle while eating the grass. It showed that one front tooth of the camel was broken.’ He had also seen that the ants were carrying grains of wheat and swarms of bees gathered on the honey. This all proved his statement. He again swore that he had not seen the camel. The Judge was pleased with the wisdom of the man and praised him for his common sense. He let him go and scolded the two merchants for troubling a good man.
Moral : Common sense is the best sense.
