| A poor traveler stopped under the tree
to eat the boiled rice and vegetables which he brought with him. A few meters
away, there was a small shop by the side of the road where a woman was frying
fish and selling it to travelers. The woman watched the poor traveler carefully,
and when he finished his food and began to go, she shouted rudely, "You have not
paid me for the fried fish? "But I have not had any fried fish!" he said. "But everyone can see that you enjoyed the smell of my fried fish with your rice and veg- etables," said the woman, "If you had not smelled the fish, your meal would not have been so pleasant !" Soon a crowd collected, and although they supported the poor traveler, they had to ad- mit that wind was blowing from the shop to the place where he had eaten, and that it had carried the smell of the fried fish to him. Finally, the woman took the poor traveler to a judge, who said, "The woman says that the traveler ate his meal with the smell of her fried fish. The traveler agrees that the wind was blowing the smell of her fried fish to his nose while he was eating, so he must pay for it." "What does your fried fish cost?" he asked the woman. "Twenty-five cents a plate," she answered delighted. "Then go outside together," said the judge. "There the traveler must hold up a twenty five-cent piece so that a shadow(影子) falls on the woman's hand. The price of the smell of a plate of fried fish is the shadow of twenty-five cents." |