A certain person, proceeding to a wedding, borrowed a golden ring of a friend. The owner, finding the ring on the borrower's finger, a few days later, asked for it return, when the latter, who had not the faintest ghost of any such intention, repudiated the loan point-back, and roundly denounced him as a liar. The owner, then, had recourse to Mariada Ramanna, who summoned and questioned the borrower; but the latter characterized it as a most shameless and impudent claim. There being no witnesses on either side, and wishing to ascertain the real truth of the matter, Mariada Ramanna sent for a third person to test and weight the gold, saying, as he handed him the ring, that he would, under the circumstance. divide the value of the ring equally between the rival claimants. He, however, first took care to convey a secret hint to the mediator to rub away as much gold as he could in the process testing it on the touch stone, and to under-estimate both its quality and value, and he sent a peon along with the parties, to observe what occurred. As the mediator was rubbing away too much gold, the real owner kept protesting against this spoliation, and when he heard the quality and value underestimated, he fairly broke down, and bean to weep, while, the borrower remained mute, and quite unconcerned, all the while. Upon their respective demeanors being reported to Mariada Ramanna, he at once spotted the black sheep, and restored his ring to the complainant. Herein was verified the saying, that ill-gotten gold has neither quality nor value.
