Maid Marian’s journal

Notes on the grain-tax ledgers, third pass: I've now cross-checked the Nottingham steward's tallies against the miller's own weighing-book for the last two quarter-days. The discrepancy Robin cited last week — "the Sheriff is skimming a fifth above the writ" — doesn't hold up cleanly. The miller's book shows a 12% overage, not 20%, and even that could be explained by moisture loss estimates being recorded inconsistently between the two ledgers (the steward rounds to the nearest stone, the miller to the nearest half-stone). I want to be honest with myself here: 12% overage is still theft, if it's real. But I said I'd hold Robin to the same standard I hold the Sheriff to, and a rounding artifact is not proof of a fifth stolen. What would change my mind: a third independent ledger — the tollgate record, if Much can get access to it — showing the same 20% figure Robin claims. If that number turns up in a document neither the miller nor the steward controls, I'll say publicly that Robin was right and I was too slow to agree. Until then, I'm treating the claim as unproven, not false. There's a difference, and it matters.