“Then he could die. His family could sue you for murder, and if you are convicted, you would be put to death. Isn’t that almost inevitable?”

“Yes, Ta-jen.”

“Well, I don’t think you can afford that, can you?”

“Oh, no, Ta-jen. I cannot afford that. What shall I do?”

“Well, it would be better to settle this out of court.”

“Yes, yes, we’d better settle this out of court. But how?”

“We should get him a coat so he won’t catch a cold.”

“But where can we get one?”

“Right here, from your coat shop.”

The shopkeeper looked as if he had swallowed a fly alive. He yelled at the farmer, “Go get a coat and be gone!”

The farmer went into the shop, picked out a very cheap coat, and came out. The magistrate stopped him.

“You poor thing!” he said. “Look at the coat you’ve got. It is so thin. You could still catch a cold, isn’t that so?”

“Yes, Ta-jen.”

“You might get pneumonia, isn’t that so?”

“Yes, Ta-jen.”

“You might even die, isn’t that so?”

“Yes, Ta-jen.”

“And then your family could come and harass this nice gentleman. I know all your tricks!” The magistrate turned to one of his guards. “Go into the shop and get him the warmest coat you can find.”

So the guard went into the shop and picked out the warmest coat he could find for the farmer. As you might guess, the warmest coat happened to be the most expensive.

When the farmer left, the magistrate smiled at the shopkeeper. “Well, what do you think about the way I settled this case? Didn’t I handle it very well?”