“Who knows whether if I jump off the bridge I may not, instead of
crushing him to death, kill myself?”
So he thought it would be best to come to an arrangement with the poor
man, and he gave him two hundred roubles, a horse, and five bushels of
corn.
After this the judge, Schemyaka, sent his servant to the poor man to ask
him for two hundred roubles. The poor man showed him the stone, and
said—
“If the judge had not decided for me I should have killed him with it.”
When the servant came back to the judge and told him that, he crossed
himself—
“Thank Heaven,” said he, “I decided as he wished!”
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