I just love fairy tales, don't you? This is from an old download I
found on my computer:
Once upon a time, in a land called Freeland, there were many
kingdoms. It is said that the richest kingdom in Freeland was the
Golden Kingdom. One of the most amazing features of the Golden
Kingdom was the fact that it had many castles and many kings who
shared a common interest -- gold.
Subjects from kingdoms far and wide traveled to the Golden Kingdom to
marvel at all the symbols of incredible wealth. But the subjects
also came for another reason -- they hoped to return home with some
of the Golden Kingdom's gold. And, while a few did, alas, most
did
not. They not only didn't return with any of the Golden
Kingdom's
gold, but lost their own few pieces of gold as well thereby making
the kings of the Golden Kingdom wealthier still.
Now, one day it came to pass that a wise man appeared in the Golden
Kingdom. The wise man's name was Fred Astaire which is an
amazing
coincidence since we had a dancer by that name in our own time. And
Fred had several wise friends. They were especially wise in the ways
of the kings of the Golden Kingdom.
With much hard work, Fred and his friends developed a method whereby
subjects could take some gold from the Golden Kingdom, all perfectly
legally. Fred and his friends became famous and were loved by all.
And many of the subjects that visited the Golden Kingdom and others
who lived there prospered and hailed Fred and his friends.
But one of Fred's disciples who lived on the outskirts of the
Golden
Kingdom and who tried to use Fred's methods, which were well
tested
and known by all to work, did not prosper. And this disciple's
name
was Frank Sinatra -- another amazing coincidence since we had a
singer by that name in our own time.
Even from a young age, Frank had delusions of grandeur and insisted
that everyone call him Master Frank. But that was too much of a
mouthful so those that knew him simply called him MF although never
to his face.
And so it came to pass that MF became Fred's disciple and, for
reasons nobody can quite understand, lost all his gold using
Fred's
tried and proven methods. And so MF became enraged at Fred and
accused him and his friends of marketing a worthless system (although
everyone else knew differently).
So MF worked and worked and worked to devise a system that would take
more gold from the kings than Fred's system. But the more he
tried,
the more frustrated he got because he realized that Fred's system
was
the optimal system and couldn't be improved upon. Then MF got an
idea ...
The Golden Kingdom was a kingdom of few laws. About the only law the
kingdom had was the Law of Numbers which controlled all distribution
and redistribution of the gold. So MF met with one of the lawmakers
and beseeched him to repeal the Law of Numbers so that his system
would be better than Fred's. But the lawmaker refused which only
frustrated MF further.
And so MF went to visit the sorcerer and a very powerful sorcerer he
was. MF offered to pay the sorcerer whatever he asked if he could
fix it so the Law of Numbers applied to everyone but him. But the
sorcerer refused telling him that the Law of Numbers was too powerful
for even the sorcerer to overcome.
In desperation, MF met with the jester and the jester said this to
MF: "You don't have to develop a system which is superior to
Fred's,
just tell everyone that you did. And if you make sure you don't
give
out too much information, they will never know for sure. They'll
think the Law of Numbers was repealed just for you."
And so MF had his plan and he went around telling everyone who would
listen (not that they had much choice) that his system for extracting
gold from the kings was far superior to Fred's. He told stories
of
marching into one of the castles and leaving minutes later with much
of the king's gold. And some believed MF though most did not.
They
realized that the Law of Numbers was too powerful and would never be
repealed for just one man.
Eventually, MF was driven out of the kingdom because, in the end,
good always triumphs over evil, the truth will expose the lies and
the truthtellers and their followers will live happily ever after.
