Moses then took it away with him. The old man regretted this and said, “It was a trust left in my care.” So he went after Moses and asked him to return the staff, but Moses refused to give it to him, saying, “It is my staff.” They agreed to appoint as arbiter the first man they encountered. They met an angel in the form of a man, who ruled that the staff should be laid down and that whoever could lift it would own it. Moses set the staff down, and the old man struggled to take it but was unable to lift it. Moses then took it in his hand and raised it, so the old man relinquished it to him. (1)

Then, when Moses had completed the agreed term and Shu'ayb had given his daughter to him, Moses said to his wife, “Ask your father to give us some of the sheep.” She asked her father, and Shu'ayb said, “You may have all that they bear this year in a color different from their own.” (2)

It is also said that Shu'ayb wished to reward Moses for tending the flock so well, honoring him and showing kindness to his daughter. He said to him, “I have granted you, from the young born to my flock this year, every piebald male and female.” Allah then revealed to Moses in a dream: “Strike with your staff the water in the sheep’s watering place.” Moses struck the water with his staff and then watered the flock from it. Not a single one failed to bear a piebald male or female. Shu'ayb then knew that this was provision Allah had brought to Moses and his wife, so he fulfilled his condition and handed the flock over to him. (3)