According to the report, published in at least one newspaper, a man was arrested and charged with breaking one of the laws of the land by stealing his neighbour’s goat and converting same into goat meat stew.


The exhibit on which the police relied to get a conviction was an earthenware pot that contained some stew made from the erstwhile goat. The magistrate took the plea (“not guilty” this time) and adjourned the case for two weeks. The police took the accused and the soup pot back into custody.
Two weeks later, the case was resumed, with everyone (and everything) present in court except the contents of the soup pot.

“What happened to the exhibit?” the magistrate asked.
The prosecuting police sergeant launched into an explanation about how, faced with the problem of keeping the soup from “becoming sour” during the two weeks that the case was adjourned, the constables at the police station had been warming the stew twice a day, as required by good culinary practice.

“As a result of all this heating” the sergeant concluded, “the stew dried up.”
The magistrate dismissed the case against the accused for want of evidence, and that was why I believed the story.

Haha. Dried in the policemen's bellies. Hehe