Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah

Hazrat Simak narrates that Hazrat Hansh bin Mu'tamir said: In Yemen, a pit was dug for a lion, and the lion fell into it. People were crowding and pushing each other at the edge of the well when suddenly a man was about to fall in, so he grabbed another, and the second grabbed a third, thus a total of four people fell into the pit and all of them died. People did not understand what to do about this matter. Meanwhile, Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) arrived and said: If you wish, I will make a decision among you which will be permissible for you in the sense that you may go to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). He said: Surely, I will place the burden of blood money on those who were present at the edge of the well. And he made one-fourth of the blood money obligatory for the first person who fell into the well, one-third for the second person, half for the third, and the full blood money for the fourth. So all the people agreed to this until they came to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and informed him about the decision of Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) enforced that decision.