In Book 3 of Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, the dispute over the slaughtered cow reaches a shocking climax when Prophet David delivers his divinely inspired judgment. Instead of penalizing the idle man who slaughtered the cow, David abruptly commands the plaintiff—the original owner of the cow—to surrender all his wealth, and eventually his wife and children, to the idle man. The plaintiff vehemently protests this apparent injustice, tearing his garments, while the townspeople also begin to blame David, remaining entirely unaware of the hidden truth of the case. Rumi uses this dramatic reversal to illustrate the severe limitations of outward human perception in distinguishing the oppressor from the oppressed. He emphasizes that the true oppressor is the tyrannical inner self ($nafs$), and that divine judgment, though appearing unjust to the ignorant masses, operates on an infallible awareness of hidden spiritual and historical realities.