This text dating to the Egyptian Middle Kingdom purports to depict events occurring during the reign of King Khety III Nebkaure of Dynasty X (2050 BCE). A humble farmer and trader is robbed of his goods by a bureaucrat. He appeals his case to Rensi, the pharaoh’s Lord High Steward; and because the eloquence of this humble man is so astounding, Rensi informs the king, who has the peasant detained until he has made nine such appeals. His family is secretly provided for during this period, and all his passionate oratory is carefully written down for the king. At the end, the peasant is rewarded and the petty bureaucrat punished. The theme of the peasant’s nine speeches is ma’at, one of the most fundamental concepts of ancient Egyptian civilization, representing a union of our terms, truth, justice, and harmony. Here the term is translated as ‘‘justice.’’ The peasant’s speeches offer one of the earliest treatments ever of that concept.