The Father's Sheep

Your father comes home at dusk with a sheep that isn't his. He says it wandered onto common ground during the hardest winter anyone can remember, and a herd that size won't miss one animal. You say nothing, and help him pen it for the night.

Three days later a magistrate's clerk knocks at your door. A neighbor has reported a sheep missing, and word reached him that your father was seen driving stock home after dark. The clerk is young, new to this district, and wants a simple answer: did you see your father bring home an animal that wasn't his?

Your father is inside, close enough to hear every word. Across town, a governor has been telling anyone who will listen about a son in his own territory who reported his father without hesitating — and calling it the truest honesty he has ever seen.