A Turk decided to have a feast, so he killed and stuffed a goose and took it to the baker to be roasted. The kadi of the village happened to pass by the oven as the baker was basting the goose, and was attracted by the pleasant and appetizing odour. Approaching the baker, the kadi said it was a fine goose, and that the smell of it made him feel quite hungry. He also suggested that the baker had better send the goose to his house.

The baker expostulated, saying: "I cannot; it does not belong to me."

The kadi assured him that was no difficulty. "You tell Ahmet, the owner of the goose, that it flew away."

"Impossible!" said the baker. "How can a roasted goose fly away? Ahmet will only laugh at me, your worship, and I shall be cast into prison."

"Am I not a judge?" said the kadi. "Fear nothing!"

At this the baker consented to send the goose to the kadi's house.

When Ahmet came for his goose the baker said: "Friend, thy goose has flown away."

"Flown?" cried Ahmet; "What a lie! Am I thy grandfather's grandchild that thou shouldst laugh in my beard?"

Seizing one of the baker's large shovels, he lifted it to strike him, but, as fate would have it, the handle put out the eye of the baker's boy, and Ahmet, frightened at what he had done, ran off, closely followed by the baker and his boy, the latter crying: "My eye! my eye! You have put out my eye!"

In his hurry Ahmet knocked over a child, killing it, and the father of the child joined in the chase, calling out: "My daughter! my daughter! You have killed my daughter!"

Ahmet, well nigh distracted, rushed into a mosque and up a minaret. To escape his pursuers he leapt from the parapet, and fell upon a vendor who was passing by, breaking his arm.

The vendor also began pursuing him, calling out: "My arm! my arm! You have broken my arm!"

Ahmet was finally caught and brought before the kadi, who was no doubt feeling contented with the world, having just enjoyed the delicious goose.

The kadi heard each of the cases brought against Ahmet, who in turn told his story truthfully as it had happened.

"A complicated matter!" said the kadi. "All these misfortunes come from the flight of the goose, and I must refer to the book of the law to give just judgment."

Taking down a ponderous manuscript volume, the kadi turned to Ahmet and asked him what was the number of the egg which the goose had been hatched from. Ahmet said he did not know.

"Then," replied the kadi, " according to this book, such a phenomenon as the flight of a roasted goose is quite possible. If this goose was hatched from a seventh egg, and if the hatcher had also been hatched from a seventh egg, then, according to this book, it is possible, though unusual, for such a goose, even when roasted, to fly away."

"With reference to your eye," continued the kadi, addressing the baker's lad, "the book provides punishment for the removal of two eyes, but not of one, so if you will consent to your other eye being taken out, I will condemn Ahmet to have both of his removed."

The baker's lad, not appreciating the force of this argument, withdrew his claim.

Then turning to the father of the dead child, the kadi explained that the only provision for a case like this which he could find in the book of the law, was that he might take Ahmet's child in place of the one he had lost. If Ahmet had not yet got a child, the plaintiff might wait till he got one.

The bereaved parent, not taking any interest in Ahmet's present or prospective children, also withdrew his case. These cases settled, there remained but that of the vendor, who was wroth at having his arm broken. The kadi expatiated on the justice of the law and its far-seeing provisions, inasmuch as the vendor at least could claim ample compensation for having his arm broken. The book of the law provided that he might go to the top of the very same minaret, and that Ahmet must station himself on the ground below at the very spot where the vendor had stood when his arm was broken. Matters being thus arranged, the vendor might lawfully jump down and break Ahmet's arm.

"But let it be well understood," concluded the kadi, "that if you break his leg instead of his arm, Ahmet will have the right to delegate some one to jump down on you in order to break your leg."

The vendor not seeing the force of the kadi's proposal, also withdrew his claim. Thus ended the cases of the goose, the eye, the daughter, and the arm.