In the days when Alexander the Great marched through Asia, the Ishmaelites came before him with a lawsuit. They claimed Canaan. They were descended from Abraham, they argued; the Israelites were also descended from Abraham; therefore the land should be divided, or given to them outright.
The elders of Israel were thrown into panic. This was a legal argument that would be decided before a foreign court.
A man named Gaboha son of Pesisa came forward and asked the elders for permission to plead the case. They hesitated — he was not a famous scholar. Gaboha put it to them plainly: "If I lose, you can say that only the least among you was defeated. If I win, you can say it is our Torah that has won."
The elders agreed.
Gaboha stood before Alexander and opened a Torah scroll. He turned to Genesis 25. "Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac," he read. "But unto the sons of the concubines, that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country" (Genesis 25:5-6).
Gaboha looked up. "Abraham himself drew the line. To Isaac, the inheritance — which includes the land. To the sons of the concubines, gifts — and a journey eastward. The Ishmaelites received their portion long ago, sealed by the hand of the patriarch they claim. Their claim here is a second helping" (Sanhedrin 91a).
Alexander accepted the argument. The Ishmaelites left without their suit.
The story is preserved in the Ma'aseh Book, retold in R. Gaster's The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924), and it carries a quiet lesson: sometimes the least-credentialed advocate wins the case, because he lets the ancient text do the talking.