The Trustee and the Oath

A man who had received a deposit from a friend was planning to cheat him of it. As this friend called on him to swear an oath, seized with unease, he set off for the country. On reaching the city gates, he saw a lame man going out and asked him who he was and where he was going. The man after replying that he was the Oath and that he was on his way to punish wrongdoers, he asked him another question: "After how long do you usually come back to the cities?" "After forty years, sometimes even thirty," he replied. So the next day the man swore without hesitation that he had not received the deposit. But he fell in with the Oath, who took him off to hurl him down. The man protested, "You told me that you came back only after thirty years, and you don't grant me even a day's safety." The Oath retorted, "You should know that, when someone means to provoke me, my habit is to come back the very same day."