Page:Ali Baba, or, The forty thieves, destroyed by Morgiana, a female slave.pdf/24

24 DISHONESTY PUNISHED.

An Usurer, having lost a hundred pounds in a bag, promised to give a reward of ten pounds to the person who should restore it. A man having brought it to him, demanded the reward. The usurer, loath to give the reward now that he had got the bag, alledged, after the bag was opened, that there were an hundred and ten pounds in it when he lost it. The usurer being called before the judge, unwarily acknowledged that the seal was broke open in his presence, and that there were no more at that time but a hundred pounds in the bag. 'You say,' says the judge, 'that the bag you lost, had a hundred and ten pounds in it.' 'Yes, my lord.' 'Then,' replied the judge, 'this cannot be your bag, as it contained but a hundred pounds: therefore the plaintiff must keep it till the true owner appears; and you must look for your bag where you can find it.'