Two women came before the king. One of them said:
“Oh, my lord, this woman and I dwell in one house. We both had a little baby of nearly the same age. There was no one else in the house with us. This woman’s child died in the night, and while I slept she took my child from its bed and gave me her dead child. I pray you make her return to me my own child, for her child is dead and it is mine that is yet alive.”
Then the other woman said:
“Nay, it is my child that is alive, and it was her child that died; and now she seeks to rob me of my living child. I pray you, my lord, to judge between us.”
The king thought a little while and then said:
“Bring me a sword,” and they brought him a sword. Then he said:
“Divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half to the other.”
One of the women readily agreed to this, but the mother cried out:
“No! my lord! give her the living child, but in no wise slay it. I would she keep it altogether than to have it dead before my eyes.”