Stories From Ancient Times 05: “The Doll That Caught The Thief.”

A long time ago, there was a bar in a cut-off area on the side of a commercial road, through which many merchants and those who carried a lot of money with them passed, and the only place in that district where they could rest and overnight was that bar. Everyone knows that its owner is an honest man.

The days passed by the bar with the same routine, where many people visited the bar every day, some of them rest a little and then complete their way, and some of them get tired and spend the night in it, then complete their way in the morning.

One day, everyone woke up to a horrific thing, which was stealing money from all the inmates in the bar. Everyone was terrified for a while and didn't know what to do. The owner of the bar said let's search the bar again, the doors are still closed and no one came out, may we find our money here after a careful search of every corner of the bar they didn't find anything.

Here, the owner of the bar was confused and said, “My reputation will be ruined, and no one will enter my bar after today. I must find a solution and return the money to its owners.”
While everyone was arguing, an old man spoke. I have an idea that will enable us to solve this problem, and we will know the thief who stole our money. Everyone fell silent and looks of astonishment and amazement were drawn on their faces until the owner of the pub spoke and said, "What do you have?".

The old man said, “My doll, you will find the thief.” Everyone laughed and mocked him, and did not pay any attention to his words, and again the owner of the bar spoke, saying, “We will not lose anything if we try.”

The old man seemed to paint his doll with walnut juice and then put it in an empty room and said everyone should enter the room one by one and then touch the doll. It will not do anything if someone other than the thief touches it, but as soon as the thief touches it, it will make a noise that we all hear and know that it is the thief.

Everyone entered the room one by one until the last person came out. The old man took his doll. Then asked everyone: Did you all touch the doll? They said in a loud voice, “Yes.” Then He turned to the owner of the bar and said, “Have you heard the noise of the doll?” He said, “I didn’t hear anything.”

The old man asked everyone to stand in a queue and keep their hands raised and started examining their hands one by one until he reached a man who claimed that his money box had been stolen and shouted at him that you are the thief.

He denied it at first, but the owner of the bar threatened to hang him if he did not confess. When he hung the rope to hang him, he said in a low voice that if you hang me, you will never find your money here. Everyone realized that he was the thief.
After several attempts to find out the location of the money from him, he refused to speak except when everyone swore that they would never harm him. Everyone swore to leave him on his way after returning their money to them.

They were agreed not to hurt him and he told them I put the money in the chimney, everyone took their money and decided to throw a party and passed a hat to collect money and gift it to the old man.
Then the bar's owner asked the old man, how did you know he was the thief without your doll making any noise? The old man laughed and said the doll would never make noise, it was just a trick.
All I did was look for the man who did not touch the doll and his hands were not smeared with juice for fear that the doll would make noise and reveal his case