A man was brought before the judge. The witness said that the day before the prisoner had stolen some pears from a basket, outside a grocer’s. The solicitor said to the judge:
“It is true that the prisoner took a few pears with his right arm; his right arm is guilty, but not he himself; you can not punish the whole body because one of its limbs is guilty.”
“You are quite right,” answered the judge, “so I sentence the prisoner’s right arm to six days. Now the prisoner will go to prison with his arm if he likes.”
Everybody at court began to laugh; but people laughed still more when they saw the prisoner unscrew his right arm (it was a wooden arm) He then gave it to the judge, saying: “Here is my guilty arm, Sir I don’t wish to go to prison with it.”
