Once upon a time, a wicked man went into the real estate business.
He had a fair amount of property, you see, which he would rent out to peasants in exchange for most of their crops. However, his true wickedness came from the fact that he made it a point to ask for the rent at most inconvenient of times, such as while his tenants were in the shower, or in the middle of the night. Once, he had even visited many homes during a snowstorm, asking for the rent.
It was just how he got his kicks.
One particularly hot day, he ventured to the house farthest from the trees, and demanded the rent. However, only the child who lived there was home, and it took some time, but the landlord finally had to accept that he wasn’t getting the rent from a little kid.
To make things worse, when he asked the boy where his parents were, he only replied, “My mother is catching the moon in the bathtub, and my father is riding a horse made of cheese.”
“What?” the landlord asked.
But the boy just kept playing his game.
Finally, curiosity got the better of the landlord, and he promised that he would forgive that month’s rent if only the boy would tell him what he really meant. But the boy wouldn’t do it, he said, he was so sure the landlord would lie and deny the conversation ever happened, just so he could collect the rent.
Luckily, just then, a fly happened by, and perched on a barrel next to the boy. The landlord suggested the fly would make an acceptable witness, and the boy readily agreed.
“My father is taking out the garbage. And my mother is out at the store.”
And when the landlord asked him to explain how those actions accounted for the boy’s earlier statements, he simply replied,
“Well, I made that up.”
So the landlord left in a tizzy, and demanded the rent later that night, when the boy’s parents were just getting into bed.
He was just congratulating himself on his handling of the family when his mail arrived. You see, the landlord had been subpoenaed. He was to appear in court the very next day, and defend his right to the family’s rent payment.
He went to bed just fine that night, confident he would win. After all, the only witness the boy could offer was a fly….
And so he went to court, and he was charming and sympathetic, and the boy looked rather foolish. Until…
“I call the fly to the stand”
The judge banged her gavel, and a giant fly wearing a suit walked into the room and took the stand. He described the conversation between the landlord and the boy, down to what the landlord was wearing that day, and how much rent was owed.
And so the landlord paid the family back, and was from then on very careful about who he made promises in front of.
The End.
Source: The Fly, Vietnamese folktale
