# The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Alfonce/Fable 3

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¶ The thyrd fable speketh of a subtyle Inuencion of a sentence gyuen upon a derke and obscure cause.
It befelle somtyme that a good man labourer wente fro lyf to deth / the whiche labourer lefte nothyng to his sone / but only a hows / the whiche sone lyued by the laboure of his handes pourely / This yong man had a neyghbour whiche was made ryche whiche demauded of the sayd yong man yf he wold selle his hows / but he wold not selle it / by cause that it was come to hym by inherytauce and by patrymony wherfore the ryche man his neygbour conuersyd & was ful oft with hym for to deceyue hym / but the yong man fled his company as moche as he myght / & whan the ryche man perceyued that the yong man fled from hym / he bethougt hym self of a grete decepcion & falshede / & demaūded of the poure yong man that he wold hyre to hym a parte of his hows tor to delue & make a celer / the whiche he shold hold of hym payeng to hym yerely rent / & the poure yong man hyred it to hym / & whan ​the celer was made / the ryche man did do bryng therin x tones of oylle of the which the v were ful of of oylle / & the the other v were but half full / & dyd do make a grete pytte in the erthe / & dyd do put the fyue tonnes whiche were half ful in hit / & the other fyue aboue them / And thenne he shytte the dore of the celer / and delyuerd the keye to the poure yonge man / and prayd hym frawdelently to kepe wel his oylle / but the poure yonge man knewe not the malyce and falshede of his neyghboure / wherfore he was contente to kepe the keye / And within a whyle after as the oylle became dere / the ryche came to the poure / and asked hym his good / and the yong man toke to hym the keye / this Ryche man thenne sold his oylle to the marchaunts / and waraunted eche tonne al ful / And when the marchaunts mesured theyr oylle / they fond but fyue of the x tonnes full / wherof the ryche man demaunded of the poure yonge man restitucion / and for to haue his hows he maade hym to come before the Juge / ¶ And whanne the poure man was before the Juge / he demaunded terme and space for to answere / For hym thought and semed that he had kepte well his oylle / and the Juge gaf and graūted to hym day of aduys / & thene he went to a philosophre which was procuratour of the poure peple / & prayd hym for ​charyte / that he wold gyue to hym good coūceylle of his grete nede / & he reherced and told to hym al his cause & swore vpon the holy euangely that he toke none of the ryche mans oylle / And thenne the philosopher ansuerd to hys in this manere / My sone / haue no fere / for the trouthe may not faylle / And the next morowe after / the philosopher wente with the poure man in to Jugement / the whiche philosopher was constitued by the kynge for to gyue the Just sentence of hit / And after that the cause had be wel deffended and pleted by bothe partyes / the philosophre sayd / the same ryche man is of good renommee / and I suppose not that he demaunded more than he should haue / And also I byleue not that this poure may be maculed ne gylty of the blame / which he putteth on hym / but notwithstondynge for to knowe the trouthe of hit / I ordeyne and gyue sentence / that the oylle pure and clene of the v tonnes whiche are ful to be mesured / and also the lye therof / And after that the pure and clene oylle of the fyue which been but half ful to be also measured / and with the lye thereof / and that men loke yf the lye of the fyue Tonnes half ful is egal and lyke to the lye of the fyue Tonnes / whiche ben fulle / And yf hit be not soo / that as moche lye be fond within the vessels whiche ben but half full as in the other / ​he shalle thenne be suffysauntly & ryghteoysly proued / that none oyle hath be taken oute of them / but yf ther be fond as moche lye in the one as in the other / the poure shall be condempned / and of this sentence the poure was contente / & the trouthe was knowen / wherfore the poure man went quyte / and the ryche was condempned / For his grete malyce and falsheed was knowen and manyfested / For there is no synne or mysdede done / but that ones it shalle be knowen and manyfested.