The Greedy King

*Hiragana Times CIA(Cynically Insulting Agency)

Several years ago, an anonymous story called "The Greedy King" was circulated among people living under a dictator. The story said ....

Once upon a time there lived a very greedy king. He loved jewelry and collected many kinds such as diamonds and rubies in his castle. This jewelry was actually presents from rich merchants. The king was so happy to receive jewelry that he gave pieces of his land to those merchants. The merchants rented the land to poor people and became much richer. They gave all the jewelry they had to the king.

After a while, the King, who could no longer get jewelry from the merchants, told the citizens to present their jewelry to him. Although many had saved some jewelry for insurance against disease or accidents, most of the citizens were poor and no one offered any to the king.

The angry king ordered his subordinates to use force to collect jewelry from the citizens. The subordinates searched citizens' houses and took their jewelry away. The subordinates gave the jewelry to the king, but they took half of it before doing so. The king, disappointed to receive so little jewelry, again ordered his staff to collect more from citizens. The subordinates searched the houses again, but could not gather much since most citizens had hidden their valuables.

The frustrated king asked his citizens to inform him who was hiding jewelry. The citizens' lives became more miserable and everyone was thin. The king then promised delicious food to every informer. The hungry citizens started to inform on others and almost all the remaining jewelry was collected at once.

Looking over the collected jewelry alone in the castle, the king murmured satisfactorily "All the jewelry in this country is mine. I will collect even more." At that moment, a subordinate suddenly appeared and said, "My lord, something awful has happened. The neighboring country is invading us. They are very strong." Surprised, the king shouted, "Why did they invade my country?" The subordinate replied, "They say they came here to save the poor citizens." The king became angry and ordered his soldiers to fight back against the enemy and told his subordinates to protect the castle and the jewelry.

However, when the enemy crossed the border, the citizens welcomed them. The citizens thought it would be better to be dominated by the king of the neighboring country. The solders also did not fight. Nobody helped the greedy king. The king tried to escape with all his jewelry but was stopped by his subordinates. When the enemy approached the castle, the king escaped with nothing, madly shouting, "All the jewelry is mine."

The sequel to the story:
This dictatorship collapsed as described in the story and the following paragraphs were recently added to the story.

The reason the subordinates stopped their king escaping with the jewelry was because the enemy king had promised to share it with them if they successfully protected the jewelry in the castle. However, the enemy king, who became the new king of this country, broke his promise and exiled them all. Furthermore, he continued to encourage citizens to inform on each other.

*Hiragana Times CIA(Cynically Insulting Agency)

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