The Wise Judge

Two women claim the same child, and the judge devises a test that only love can answer.

The story begins: Two women came before a judge, each claiming to be the mother of the same child. There was no witness, and neither would give way.

The Story

Two women once came before a wise judge, bringing with them a baby boy. Each of them declared that the child was hers, and each demanded that the judge give the child to her.

They had lived in the same house, and the child had been found in the morning with no one who could say for certain to which of them he belonged. There were no witnesses at all, and neither woman would give way to the other.

The judge listened to both of them for a long time. The first spoke calmly and wept; the second spoke loudly and angrily. Nothing that either said could be proved, and the court could not tell which was speaking the truth.

At last the judge held up his hand for silence. "Since neither of you will yield," he said, "and since the law cannot decide between you, there is only one just course. The child shall be divided, and each of you shall take half."

He called for a sword to be brought.

The second woman folded her arms. "That is fair," she said. "If I cannot have him, she shall not have him either. Let him be divided."

But the first woman threw herself at the judge's feet, crying out. "No, my lord!" she said. "Do not harm him. Give the child to her. Let her keep him and bring him up. Only let him live."

The judge rose from his seat and pointed to the woman kneeling on the floor. "Give her the child," he said, "and let no one harm him. She is his mother."

For he knew that the woman who could give up her claim rather than see the child hurt was the one who truly loved him, and that no test of words could have shown it so clearly.

Moral: True love shows itself in sacrifice.