A drunkard’s remedy

"Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour."
-William Shakespeare

Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom there lived a man, a drunkard, who spent all his rich inheritance on alcohol, parties and in the end, found himself in poverty. Only thing left to him was an old blanket to cover and protect him from winter frost. One day, dead drunk, he stumbled in front of the king walking through the city. The king, seeing his sorry state started cussing him “Shame on you! Look what you look like!”
“Why do you care?” answered the drunkard. “If I am drinking, I am buying with my own money! If you think that I am poor, tell me for how much are you going to sell me your kingdom?”
The king hearing this thought that maybe somebody has set him up, somebody could send this drunkard to cheat him out of kingdom. “I can not sell you entire kingdom” he told him “but I will sell you one half for a ten wagons of gold!”
“Good” responded the drunkard. “Early in the morning I will bring you the gold!”

Since he didn’t showed at the agreed time in the morning, the king send guards to bring him. Now sober, the drunkard admitted that he had no single coin, let alone ten wagons of gold. The king, enraged, ordered his execution for this offense. Seeing that the king is going to go through with this the drunkard asked for a favor. “Before you execute me, please do me one favor. Find three men in your kingdom, a beggar who has nothing, a blind man that cannot see and a cripple with no legs. Dine them and wine them, and two of us will watch what happens.” The king agreed to this and immediately ordered that such three men be found. He then placed them at the king’s table and best food and best wines were brought in front of them.

A righteous verdict

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."

- Isaac Asimov

Once upon a time, a rich merchant lost a bag full of gold coins. Looking everywhere but not finding it, he finally hired a herald to walk around the city and tell everyone that he will reward the honest finder with 100 gold coins. Not long after the herald finished delivering the rich merchant’s message, a poor farmer showed up on a merchant’s doorstep.

“Here merchant, I believe that this is your lost bag of coins” he told the rich man. Filled with delight, rich merchant grabbed the bag and immediately started counting the coins. After he counted it all, he suddenly saddened, since he remembered that he had to give 100 coins to the farmer as promised. After some thought, he had an idea how to keep the coins and swindle the honest finder.

“I see that you have already taken your 100 coins my good man,” he told the farmer “There were 800 gold coins in this bag and now there are only 700. You have done well. Thank you!”

Poor farmer was very surprised to hear this, more hurt by the lie than not getting the promised reward. He started swearing that he never even opened the bag and that the brought it as he found it. Unfortunately, the rich merchant insisted that there were 800 coins in the bag and now only 700. Not being able to reach an agreement, they went to the city judge, each one hoping to receive favorable verdict.

Echo as life

“Civility costs nothing and buys everything.” 

- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Once upon a time, a man and his son were walking in the forest. Suddenly the boy tripped and screamed, "Ahhhhh." Surprised, he heard a voice coming from the mountain, "Ahhhhh!"

Filled with curiosity, he yelled "Who are you?", but the only answer he received was: "Who are you?"

This made him rather angry, so he screamed "You are a coward!" and the voice answered: "You are a coward!"

The boy looked at his father and asked, "Dad, what is going on?" "Son," the man replied, "pay attention!" 

Then he yelled, "I admire you!" 

The voice answered: "I admire you!" 

The father shouted, "You are wonderful!", and the voice answered: "You are wonderful!"

The boy stood surprised, still not understanding what is going on.

Echo - the myth

“A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. “

- Oscar Wilde

The story of the nymph Echo is an ancient one and it has its merits certainly.

Echo was a beautiful nymph, fond of the woods and hills, where she devoted herself to woodland sports. She was a favorite of Diana, and attended her in the chase. However, Echo had one failing; she was fond of talking, and whether in chat or argument, would have the last word. 

One day, goddess Juno went seeking her husband, who, she feared, was amusing himself with the nymphs. Echo by her talk contrived to detain the goddess until the nymphs made their escape. When Juno discovered it, she passed sentence upon Echo in these words: 

"You shall be deprived of the use of that tongue with which you have cheated me except for that one purpose you are so fond of - reply. You shall still have the last word, but no power to speak first."

Up where we belong...

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." 

- Jimi Hendrix

"Up Where We Belong" is a quite an inspirational song from the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. Although this was oldie in my youth, I loved this song in my high-school days. Do you remember the lyrics...