THE FARMER AND THE WISE JUDGE

Scene 1 N: Once there was a poor man named Chang-Fu Yen who lived somewhere in the hills of North China who hurriedly went to the nearby City of Peking to ask help to the wise judge in the said City. F: Your Honor! Your Honor! Please help me! J: How do I help you? And who are you? F: I am Chang-Fu Yen your honor. Ive heard how wise you are as a judge, your honor. And I came here to seek your help. My garlic has been stolen from my small field. And thats my only source of living. J: Why did you not catch the thief? F: But how your honor? I was not there when my garlic was stolen. J: Do you have any witness to testify on the robbers identity or do you have any clues? F: Nobody saw the thief your honor. And there was nothing left in the field as a clue except the little hut where I stayed to watch over my field, but it had been there before. J: Well, since your hut is the only thing in the field, then the hut must have stolen your garlic. F: Huh! A hut could steal garlic? J: Go back home and bring back the hut tomorrow.

Scene 2 N: The next day, Chang brought his hut in the courtroom as instructed by the judge. Imagine? A hut in the courtroom? Funny! And that made the crowd couldnt stop from laughing. C: (laughing) J: Order! Order in the court! Now lets begin. (Faving the hut) Hut, are you the one who stole the garlic of Chang-Fu Yen? C: (laughing) J: Order! Order in the court! C: (couldnt stop laughing) J: Order! C: May I remind everybody that this is not a market place. This is a court of law. You are not allowed to make fun to anyone. Anybody caught laughing would be sent to jail. (Face the hut) Now if you will not speak, I will make you speak. (Look back) Guard, beat this hut until it answers my question. G: (beat the hut) C: (keep on laughing) J: Order! I said Order! Guard, lock the door!

(Looked at the crowd) Put them all in the jail. This disobeyed me. (Pointed at the crowd) Youll only be set free if you will pay the fine. F: (talked to himself) I thought this judge is wise. But he must be crazy. Why did he asked the guard to beat the hut in order to find the thief? And why garlic as fines? N: As ordered by the judge, everybody inside the courtroom were imprisoned for disobeying his law. And as a ransom, the families of the imprisoned brought their fines one pound of garlic each. The judge instructed the receivers of fines to ask where they got the garlic and write the merchants name on a tag. After all the prisoners were freed, one of the judges wisest decision was that out of garlic, he was able to pinpoint 3 merchants as the prime suspects whom he ordered to appear to the courthouse. G: (bringing the 3merchants) M1: Your Honor, why are we summoned here? M2: Please your honor, release me, my family needs me. M3: I am innocent, your honor. I didnt steal anything. J: (looked deeply into their eyes) Well, well. Many men have called me wise. This maybe true or not. And since you have refused to tell the truth, I have someone who can help me solved this case. He is a god of truth. And tonight is your night with this god. And Im 100% sure, by tomorrow, the truth will be revealed. N: The judge took the 3 merchants in a dark room. At the middle is a statue of a sitting god made from white marble. The night was over.

J: Bring the prisoners here G: (brought out the prisoners) J: (to the merchants) About face 3Ms: (turn their back to the judge) J: (inspected their back) M3: (merchant seen with black mark) J: Here is the thief. M3: (kneeled down) Your honor Im sorry. Please forgive me. Please. J: (to the guard) Put her back to jail (To the merchant 3) You need to pay what you have done. N: The 3rd merchant was put back to jail. The farmer was so curious of what had happened. F: Your honor, if you dont mind, how did you made it? J: Chang, remember when we brought them at the dark room? F: Yes your honor. J: when we left them that night and allow them to see nothing but the eyes of the statue-the eyes of truth, this was what happened.

(Flashback) God of truth: (with eyes open wide) (stared at the 3 merchants) M3: (pressed tightly against the wall all night) F: Meaning, the god of truth didnt marked the 3rd merchant? But how his back was marked? J: Im wise as you have said. And without your knowing, I have secret agents whom I ask to rub the walls with fine black powder from burns. And thats all. F: I cant believe it, your honor youre really wise. You were able to solve my problem. Thank you so much your honor! Thank you! N: The judge became even more famous after solving that case. And Chang FuYen became rich because he sold all the garlic he got at a high price and spent the rest of his days in his dream house surrounded by a garden of roses. And he lived happily ever after.