In the desert kingdom of Agraba, laws were rigid and punishments severe. For theft, even something as small as an apple could cost a person his hand. One day, a starving boy barely twelve, named Kamil, stole an apple after going without food for three days. The shopkeeper caught him. The crowd mocked him. The royal guards dragged him before Sultan Quasim Ali, the ruler, who ordered: "For theft, cut his hand." The boy stood frozen, tears in his eyes. Just as the sentence was about to be carried out, Minister Musa Rashid, wise beyond his years, intervened: "Majesty, the law may demand his hand—but justice demands we ask why his stomach was empty. If the child must steal to survive, it is not his shame but ours. The greater crime is not theft of fruit, but theft of compassion from the hearts of men. Punishment may satisfy the law—but mercy redeems the kingdom." The court fell silent. The Sultan's gold-adorned hand, raised in judgment, trembled before l...