You Are Right Too

Once Nasreddin Hodja served as judge in Aksehir. One day two villagers came before him. One of them, red in the face, began: "Judge, my neighbour's cow got into my field and ate all my wheat. So I shut the cow in my barn. I won't give it back until he pays for the damage!"

The Hodja listened carefully and nodded: "You are right, my boy, you are right."

Then the other villager spoke up: "Judge, there was no fence around his field. My cow goes along that road every day. Isn't it the fault of the field owner who never built a fence? And he's kept my cow in his barn for three days and milked her!"

The Hodja listened carefully again and nodded again: "You are right too, my boy, you are right too."

The Hodja's wife had been listening to all this from behind the door. She could not stand it any longer and came in: "Husband, how can that be? They can't both be right! If one is right, the other must be wrong."

The Hodja turned to his wife and nodded with the same seriousness: "Wife, you are right too."

At this answer, both villagers burst out laughing. As they laughed, they looked at each other, and their anger faded. "I didn't build my fence," said one. "And I didn't keep an eye on my cow," said the other. The cow was returned to its owner, and the three days of milk were counted against the damaged wheat. The two neighbours left the court arm in arm.

"You see, they made peace by themselves," said his wife. The Hodja smiled: "Sometimes, wife, when people hear that they are right, they start to listen to the other side. Sometimes a judge's job is not to find out who is wrong, but to soften the hearts of both."