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56. THE SIGNET RING
A palace priest in a certain city had gained quite a name for his honest and straightforward dealings. People deposited their valuables with him without any hesitation whenever they wanted to travel out, and he returned all of them to their owners in tact, when they came back even if it was a long time. A man from the town who wanted to go out on a journey left his precious collection with the priest in a handsome looking purse. After a long time, he returned home and asked the priest to return the purse. The priest however disclaimed any knowledge about the purse and even said that he had nothing to do with that man. The poor man had a profound shock and did not know what to do.
Once he saw the minister of the king passing by the house of the priest and loudly asked the priest to return his purse that contained a thousand gold pieces: his intention was that the minister should clearly hear him. The minister did hear the man making this type of demand in such a loud voice from an open street and duly conveyed the matter to the king. Then he took the man with him to the king's court. When the king heard the whole case from the unfortunate man, he asked the priest to return his money to him. The priest persisted in his own claim that he had nothing to do with that man and that he had received no purse and no money from him. The king asked the complainant to tell him the whole story over again this time more truthfully. The man merely repeated his earlier complaint and gave the details of the day and the time and the place where the purse was handed over to the priest, and the persons who were present then.
One of these days, the priest and the king were chattering
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