Once upon a time, there was a well-known man among people for his wide-tracking knowledge. In the meantime, a man was living in his village who owned a few palm trees. He looked after them by watering, caring for, and guarding them with an unblinking eye. Because it was a time of hunger and poverty, people at that time used to guard the good properties they owned, whether it was land, livestock, or palm trees.
The Autumn harvest came around, and the man’s palm trees were covered with shoots of fruit stalks piled one over another. One night, the owner of the palms passed into a deep slumber while guarding his palms. Two men came, took advantage of his sleep, cropped the ripe dates from the two palms, and carried them home.
The next morning, the man woke up. He did not find the ripe dates but found the fruit stalks of the palm trees along with all the ripe dates cropped. The man felt disappointed for his passing into a deep slumber that caused the loss of his ripe dates and the ripe dates of his palm trees. He did not continue feeling confused. He thought of what he had to do next and remembered the tracker whom he knew, and he chose to go and get help from him to find out who had stolen the ripe dates while he was sleeping.
The man with the two palms went to the tracker and told him what happened. The tracker asked him whether there was a footprint other than his.
The man replied, “Yes, there are, and I believe they are only the thief’s footprints. There are no footprints other than mine and his.”
The tracker said, “It’s good; let’s go together to the place of the two palm trees.”
After they reached the place of the two palm trees, the tracker checked the footprints and distinguished the form of the man’s feet from the form of other feet. The tracker tracked the different footprints while the man with the two palms followed him until he reached the house of the two thieves.
He said, “This is the house of the two thieves who stole your ripe dates.”
The tracker entered their house and found the ripe dates of the two stolen palm trees with them.
“You are thieves. You stole the ripe dates from the palm trees of this man yesterday, and your footprints and beard witness against you,” he said to them.
The two men denied his charge and said, “The ripe dates you see are not his.”
The tracker was unsure they were the actual thieves; otherwise, he would notify the king. Therefore, he thought of a trick with the man to explore the issue and catch them red-handed.
The tracker and the man returned to the two thieves’ house. He asked them to enter and see the ripe dates. But they refused to open the door. As the tracker was sure that the two thieves could hear them from behind the door, he and the man created a dialogue.
The tracker asked him, “How can you distinguish the dates on your palms from the rest of the dates?”
The man answered him, “The two palm tree implants were brought by my grandfather from a faraway country. Its date palms are distinguished in a way that is like no other palm tree in any place on Earth. If oil is put in a built-in pit vase and five dates are put all at once in the place of the built-in pit, the oil shall not affect the dates and enter the built-in pit or drip from it.”
Once the two thieves heard the dialogue, they implemented the experiment. From outside, the man and the tracker watched this through a hole in the house window.
After realizing that the two men were telling the truth, the two thieves realized denial would not help. Therefore, they opened the house door and let the tracker come in.
“You are the ones who have stolen this man’s ripe dates, and there is no use for denial, and if you do not confess now, I shall notify the king,” he said to the two thieves.
The two thieves felt extremely frightened after hearing the threatening words of the tracker. They admitted their sin and confessed to him that they had stolen the ripe dates from the two palm trees.
“Yes, we stole the ripe dates and regretted what we did. Could you please take back the ripe dates of the man we have stolen from and please request him to forgive us for what we did?” They said to him.
“I shall request from him that he may forgive you. If the man agrees to forgive you, it is up to him; but if he does not, you should be punished,” he said.
He felt pleased when the tracker returned to the palm farmer, carrying the stolen ripe dates with him. When he asked the man to forgive them, he immediately forgave them in honor of him.
