[fable] Father, Son, and Gold

One of my favorites that I heard a long time ago:

The middle son of a a wealthy businessman in the country-side, got arrested in the city and punishment by death.

The father got the news, prepard a cart of gold, and summoned the youngest son to go into the city to make bribes that he knew, for sure, would save his son.

But the eldest son came forward and begged to go instead. He insisted that his brother is too young to do the job. After a lot of pleading, the father finally gave in.

Days later, the eldest son returned with much of the gold --- and the dead body of the middle son.

The father simply said, sadly, "I knew this was going to happend ..."

"What do you mean?"

"I wanted the youngest son to go, because he grew up in wealth and wouldn't have any hesitation with giving away all the gold", he said, "But the eldest son, he grew up when we were poor, and I knew he was probably going to try to save money where he thought he could ..."