Reason and Heart

Once, the mind and the heart got into an argument. The heart insisted that people live for it, while the mind claimed the opposite. They decided not to seek the help of a judge but to act independently and not interfere in each other's affairs. They agreed to test their pact on a peasant.

The peasant, as usual, took his plow and went to the field. When he began plowing, his plow got stuck in a furrow. Bending down, he saw a copper jug filled with gold buried in the ground. "What should I do now?" he thought. "I can do great things with this money; I can become a rich man."

At the same time, another thought crossed his mind: "What if thieves find out about this and come for it? If I resist, they’ll kill me." Preoccupied with these thoughts, he suddenly noticed the judge of the country passing by on the road. "I’d better give the gold to the judge and continue my work in peace," the peasant decided. He ran after the judge and brought him to his field.

But then his mind returned to him. Coming to his senses, the peasant quickly hid the jug behind his back and said to the judge:

"Ah, you’re the judge and a learned man. Tell me, which of these two oxen of mine is better?"

Hearing this, the judge cursed him in anger and left. With his departure, the peasant’s mind also left him. Once again, the peasant began to ponder: "Why didn’t I give him the gold? What will I do with the gold? Where will I keep it?"

Leaving his work, he pondered until evening when he noticed the judge returning from the village. He rushed to him, begging and pleading for the judge to come back to his field. The judge, sensing something was amiss, followed him. But the peasant’s mind returned once more, and he said to the judge:

"I beg you, don’t be angry. Look at my field—you’re a learned man! Which is greater: yesterday’s plowing or today’s?"

The judge, thinking the plowman had gone mad, laughed and left. With him, the peasant’s mind also departed—and sat down at the edge of the field.

"Oh, Lord!" the peasant exclaimed in a fit of rage. "Why didn’t I give the judge the gold? Where and how will I keep it?"

Without further thought, he stuffed the jug of gold into a sack that he used to carry his lunch to the field, slung it over his shoulder, and returned home. He said to his wife:

"Wife, quickly tie up the oxen, give them hay, and put away the plow! I’m going to see the judge."

The wife noticed the sack on her husband’s back and decided to find out what was hidden inside.

"It’s not my job as a woman to tie up the oxen—I only deal with sheep and cows. You’d better tie them up yourself and go wherever you want."

Leaving the sack in the room, the husband went to put the oxen in the barn. The wife took the jug of gold from the sack and replaced it with a stone. When the husband returned from the barn, he hastily grabbed the sack and rushed straight to the judge.

"Here’s a gift for you, take it!" he said to the judge.

When the judge untied the sack, the peasant was dumbfounded.

The judge became angry but, sensing something was wrong, ordered the peasant to be imprisoned and assigned two men to watch him, instructing them to report everything he did or said. Sitting in prison, the peasant began muttering and gesturing with his hands: the jug was such-and-such a size, the spout was such-and-such, the volume was such-and-such, the bottom was such-and-such, and it contained so much gold.

The assigned men reported to the judge: "He was waving his hands but saying nothing." The judge ordered the peasant to be brought before him.

"Tell me, why were you waving your hands, and what were you measuring?"

The peasant’s mind returned to him at once, and he replied to the judge:

"I was measuring you: your head is this big, your neck is this big, your stomach is this big, your beard is this big, and I was thinking to myself: who’s bigger—you or our bearded goat?"

The judge flew into a rage and ordered the peasant to be hanged. They led him to the gallows, but as they placed the noose around his neck and prepared to tighten it, he pleaded:

"Don’t execute me! I’ll go to the judge and tell him the whole truth!"

They brought him back to the judge.

"Tell the truth—what were you measuring in prison?"
"There’s nothing for me to tell you: if you hadn’t removed the noose from my neck, I would have died. That’s the whole truth," the peasant replied.

The judge laughed at these words and set the peasant free. The mind and the heart repented for what they had done and vowed from then on to act together, deciding that it is the mind and the heart, the heart and the mind, that make a person human.

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Reason and Heart

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