Clever fable about quick thinking

Vienna Sweetmeat Dish, by Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier period, (ca. 1730) Public domain

Here's a short fable about a lawyer used quick thinking to save his career. From How to torture your mind; paradoxes, fallacies, dilemmas, figures, and word wonders by Ralph L. Woods (1969):

Two business partners placed $20,000 in the hands of a lawyer as custodian,…