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55. THE SON
A certain merchant had two wives. One of them had a son while the other none. But this woman also treated the child with great affection and the child did not know which of the two was his mother. Once, when the merchant had gone out on his usual journey, he met with his death and eventually the two women began to quarrel. One of them said that since she had the son, she must be the mistress of the house and the other also claimed to be the mother of the child and insisted on having the same position. Finally they appealed to the king and the king's minister of justice suggested that the entire wealth of the man should be equally divided and so also the child. So the child was to be cut up into two parts and each one of the two women should be satisfied with one part of the child.
The minister's verdict was a profound shock to the woman who was the real mother of the child. She begged of the minister his permission to withdraw her claim, "Oh no sir. I may as well say this is not my son. Please do not cut him up. Let her have him whole. Nor do I want any share in the property. Let the whole of it go to her. I shall be happy to live in any body else's house as an humble servant. My only pleasure will be to see him alive. I do not want to live at the cost of my son's life." The other woman merely kept quiet. The minister quickly came to realise, who the real mother was and assigned to her the title to the house, property and the son. The other woman was told off.
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