Story of the simpletons who ate the buffalo.
Some villagers took a buffalo belonging to a certain man, and killed it in an enclosure outside the village, under a banyan-tree, and, dividing it, ate it up. The proprietor of the buffalo went and complained to the king, and he had the villagers, who had eaten the buffalo, brought before him. And the proprietor of the buffalo said before the king, in their presence; “These foolish men took my buffalo under a banyan-tree near the tank, and killed it and ate it before my eyes.” Whereupon an old fool among the villagers said, “There is no tank or banyan-tree in our village. He says what is not true: where did we kill his buffalo or eat it?”
When the proprietor of the buffalo heard this, he said; “What! is there not a banyan-tree and a tank on the east side of the village? Moreover, you ate my buffalo on the eighth day of the lunar month.” When the proprietor of the buffalo said this, the old fool replied, “There is no east side or eighth day in our village.” When the king heard this, he laughed, and said, to encourage the fool; “You are a truthful person, you never say anything false, so tell me the truth, did you eat that buffalo or did you not?” When the fool heard that, he said, “I was born three years after my father died, and he taught me skill in speaking. So I never say what is untrue, my sovereign; it is true that we ate his buffalo, but all the rest that he alleges is false.” When the king heard this, he and his courtiers could not restrain their laughter; so the king restored the price of the buffalo to the plaintiff, and fined those villagers.
“So, fools, in the conceit of their folly, while they deny what need not be denied, reveal what it is their interest to suppress, in order to get themselves believed.”