Once, during the reign of Ali (PBUH) in Kufah, his armor was lost. After a while it was found at the possession of a Christian man.
Amir al-Mu’minin (PBUH), who was the ruler of the society, took the Christian to the judge and claimed the armor. He said: “This armor is mine; I have neither sold it, nor that I have given it as a present. And now I have found it at the hands of this man.”
The judge said to the Christian man: “The caliph asserted his claim. What is your word?”
The Christian man replied: “This armor is mine. At the same time I don’t deny the claim of the caliph (he might have made a mistake).”
The judge turned to Ali (PBUH) and said: “You are the complainant, and this man denies the claim. Now, it is you who should bring a witness.”
Amir al-Mu’minin (PBUH) smiled and said: “The judge is right. It is me who should bring a witness. I don’t have a witness, however.”
The judge, based on the fact that there is no witness, passed judgment in favor of the Christian man, and he took the armor, and started to leave.
The Christian man, knowing better than anyone else that to whom that armor belonged to, after taking a few steps returned to his conscience saying: “this is not like the ordinary and human kind of statecraft, and looks like the prophets’.”
Therefore he admitted that the owner of the armor is Ali (PBUH).”
After a while he was seen converting to Islam, and was fighting faithfully under the banner of Amir al-Mu’minin (PBUH) in the Nahravan battle.[1]
(The above is a selection taken from “Anecdotes of Pious Men”, by Martyr Murtada Mutahhari)
Footnote:
[1] Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 101, p. 290- Durar al-Akhbar, p. 728, -Ali, The Voice of Human Justice