Two boys were buying meat at the same stall. Seeing the butcher busy on the other side, one of them stole some offal and dropped it into the other's clothes. The butcher, having turned round and looking for these pieces, accused the two boys. But the one who had taken them swore that he did not have them, and the one who had them, that he had not taken them. Guessing their trick, the butcher said, "You may escape me by a false oath; but you will certainly not escape the gods."
The impiety of a false oath remains the same, whatever cleverness one uses to dress it up.
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