Cilla Carden, a vegan massage therapist from Girrawheen- a suburb of the Western Australian city of Perth sued her neighbors for barbecuing in their own back yard. (Melissa Locker, Nine News Perth, September 4, 2019).
Believe it or not there is case law applicable (more or less) to this suit. It happened in Turkey in the thirteenth century. The facts of the case are these:
A poor man was passing through Ak-Sheir with only a piece of dry bread between himself and starvation. As he passed by an eating house, he saw some very appetizing meatballs frying in a pan over the charcoal fire, and carried away by the delicious smell, he held his piece of dry bread over the pan in the hope of capturing some of it. Then he ate his bread which seemed to taste better. The restaurant owner, however, had seen what was going on, and seizing the man by the scruff of his neck, dragged him off before the magistrate, who at this time happened to be Nasreddin Hodja, and demanded that he be compelled to pay the price of the pan of meatballs. The Hodja listened attentively, then drew two coins from his pocket. “Come here a minute,” he said to the restaurant owner. The latter obeyed, and the Hodja enclosed the coins in his fist and rattled them in the man’s ear. “What is the meaning of this?” said the restaurant owner. “I have just paid you your damages,” said the Hodja. “The sound of money is fair payment for the smell of food.” (Islamic Folk Stories by Nasreddin Hodja; The Art of Critical Reading by Mather & McCarthy, 2005.)
