This tale was told to me. I couldn't resist the urge to add a few embellishments, but the plot is the same:
A young woman stood before the judge, accused of the many crimes she had committed.
There was the woman in front of the judge. "No!" she cried. "No! Please, don't send me there! I can't pay the price!" She pleaded with the judge, tears streaming down her cheeks.
It was either a life sentence with the torturers or an enormous bail amount that she could never pay, no matter how hard she tried by her own efforts. She could not save herself. She cried out to the last person who could help her, the person on the high bench who had the power to save or condemn.
The judge was a righteous, wise, honest judge who was never bribed. There were witnesses against her, physical evidence, a money trail, all linking her to the crimes she had participated in. He was a just man, and could not turn a blind eye to the breaking of the law. He sat up, his robes giving him the authority to sit on the top of the stand, the most powerful if not the most painful position in the court.
This young woman brought before him by her accuser had been living for herself for years without a care for the consequences, telling herself that whatever she did was right, when reality it was just there in an attempt to patch up the relations with the father she had never cared much to speak to. Now it had all caught up with her.
It pained the judge to give the truthful verdict. "Guilty," he said, swinging down his gavel.
"NO, Daddy, please, no!" The woman cried as they took her away to be forever guarded, mocked, and antagonized by the torturers. She sobbed, but her weeping was lost as they took her down the hall.
The judge listened, his heart going with the woman. He took off his judges' robes to reveal a suit and tie underneath. He put on his hat and exited the courtroom.
He walked up to the court cashier. The man pulled a name out of his wallet. "I would like to pay the bail for her."
The cashier looked at him in astonishment over reading glasses. "But - sir-"
"Do it."
It was done. The man paid the entire bail for the young woman with all that he had, with all the profits of his life. When he was penniless, they brought the woman out of the prison.
The judge smiled when he saw his daughter. She had been judged within the law and saved by love.
It was either a life sentence with the torturers or an enormous bail amount that she could never pay, no matter how hard she tried by her own efforts. She could not save herself. She cried out to the last person who could help her, the person on the high bench who had the power to save or condemn.
The judge was a righteous, wise, honest judge who was never bribed. There were witnesses against her, physical evidence, a money trail, all linking her to the crimes she had participated in. He was a just man, and could not turn a blind eye to the breaking of the law. He sat up, his robes giving him the authority to sit on the top of the stand, the most powerful if not the most painful position in the court.
This young woman brought before him by her accuser had been living for herself for years without a care for the consequences, telling herself that whatever she did was right, when reality it was just there in an attempt to patch up the relations with the father she had never cared much to speak to. Now it had all caught up with her.
It pained the judge to give the truthful verdict. "Guilty," he said, swinging down his gavel.
"NO, Daddy, please, no!" The woman cried as they took her away to be forever guarded, mocked, and antagonized by the torturers. She sobbed, but her weeping was lost as they took her down the hall.
The judge listened, his heart going with the woman. He took off his judges' robes to reveal a suit and tie underneath. He put on his hat and exited the courtroom.
He walked up to the court cashier. The man pulled a name out of his wallet. "I would like to pay the bail for her."
The cashier looked at him in astonishment over reading glasses. "But - sir-"
"Do it."
It was done. The man paid the entire bail for the young woman with all that he had, with all the profits of his life. When he was penniless, they brought the woman out of the prison.
The judge smiled when he saw his daughter. She had been judged within the law and saved by love.
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