Do what the scriptures tell you to do

The commander of the occupation troops said to the mayor of the mountain village, "We know you are hiding a traitor. Unless you give him up to us we will torture you and your people by every means in out power."

The village was, indeed, hiding a man who seemed good and innocent, and was loved by all. But what could the mayor do now that the welfare of the village was at stake? Days of discussions in the village council led to no conclusion. So the mayor finally took the matter up with the priest.  Preist and mayor spent a whole night searching the scriptures and finally came up with a text that said: "It is better that one man die to save the nation."

So the mayor handed over the innocent man, whose screams echoed through the village as he was tortured and put to death.

Many years later a prophet came to that village, went right up to the mayor, and said, "How could you have done what you did?  That man was innocent. And you handed him over to be tortured and killed."

"But where did I go wrong?", pleaded the mayor.  "The priest and I looked all night at the scriptures, and did what they commanded."

"That's where you went wrong," said the prophet. "You looked at the scriptures. But you should also have looked into the man's eyes."