True Justice In Plato's The Republic

The Republic, is another one of Plato's Socratic dialogues written in 380 BCE. Within the dialogue, Socrates, discuses and sets out to answer the question "What is Justice?" As the conversation continues, Socrates disproves every suggestion offered, showing how each harbors hidden contradictions and then embarks on a discussion to find out what true justice is, and to find out whether the just man is truly happier than the unjust man, or vice versa.
The story begins as Socrates and his friend Glaucon head home from a religious festival at Piraeus. On their journey, they are stopped by old acquaintances Adeimantus and Polemarchus who then convince Socrates to make a detour to Polemarchus's house. Once they all arrive at the house, Socrates sees Polemarchus's father, Cephalus, who's an old friend and Thrasymachus. The two begin a conversation about the merits of old age. Cephalus, claims many of his friends complain about old age and not being able to do youthful things, he believes that they make old age a burden, and that old age is in fact not a burden, but instead a relief from bodily desires. He goes on to justify this by saying that if old age was really a bad experience, everybody would be complaining about it, but since he has friends who are enjoying their old age more than they enjoyed

He uses the traditional definition of a just life—paying what one owes to gods and men, and being honest. Socrates dismisses this definition and uses this example: if a person receives a weapon from a friend who then becomes insane, would it be just to return that weapon if the friend asked for it back? In this case, what would be justice - giving him his weapon back or not? The two men then agree that telling the truth and returning what you receive cannot be the definition of justice. Because Cephalus's definition fails he goes to prepare the sacrifice for the festival, and Polemarchus continues the