Rabbi Hidka recounted that Simeon of Shikmona, a fellow disciple of Rabbi Akiva, taught that Moses knew that the daughters of Zelophehad were entitled to inherit, but he did not know whether they were to take the double portion of the firstborn or not (and thus, as reports, took the case to God). Moses would have in any case written the laws of inheritance in and but as the daughters of Zelophehad were meritorious, the Torah tells the laws of inheritance through their story.