The Wisdom of Hazrat Ali (rta):
Appeared under the Editorship of Nasir Ahmad Sahib and Imam Kalamazad Sahib

Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), and the fourth Caliph of Islam, was a very wise man. It is said that two gentlemen were travelling together. They carried their lunch with them. One of them had five loaves and the other had three. After some time they felt hungry and sat down to eat. Another man passed by. He too was hungry, but he had no food. They asked him to join them. They shared their loaves and ate their meal. Afterwards, the stranger gave them eight pieces of money to pay for his share of the food and thanking them, he departed.

The man who had five loaves took five pieces of money and gave the other three pieces to his friend. But the friend thought that he should have half the money. They began to argue. At last, they decided to let the Caliph settle the case.

When they had told the Caliph the whole story, he said, "Let the owner of the five loaves take seven pieces of money and the owner of the three loaves take one piece."

The simple men could not understand this judgement. They were told to think about how much each man had eaten and how much each had given to the stranger. Dividing each of the eight loaves into three shares gave twenty-four portions. As they all had eaten the same amount, they all had eight portions. It was obvious, therefore, that the man with three loaves had only one portion to give to the stranger, and the man with five loaves had seven portions left to give to their guest.