3
Two neighbors claimed a mango tree whose trunk grew on one property and branches fed the other. Tenali asked whose children had stickier hands.
He had the families bring their children to court. “Whose courtyard holds most peels?” he asked the sweepers. The answer named the eater. “Ownership,” Tenali ruled, “leans toward service: the trunk owner keeps firewood when the tree is old; the fruit owner keeps harvest while it is generous; both keep the shade.” Laws grew kinder in the village where Tenali had measured with peels instead of pride.
