THE KING AND THE CRITIC
The king used to write stories which he thought were very good. The people to whom he showed them were afraid to criticize them. They said that his stories were good. One day he showed some of his stories to a well known critic who said that his stories were bad. The king got angry with him and sent him to prison. After some time the king pardoned the critic. When he returned he invited him to his palace for dinner. Again he showed him some of his stories and again asked him what he thought of them. The critic turned to the guards who were standing behind him and said: “Take me back to the prison”.
A WISE JUDGE
Once there lived two brothers. They worked together on their father’s farm. They were very friendly. One day their father died and left his property to his two sons. Before he died he told them to divide the property between them. But the brothers could not agree how to divide it. Each wanted to have the better part for himself. For some time they did not speak to each other. At last they went to a judge who was very wise and always knew how to settle such difficult matters. The judge listened to them attentively and then said: “The matter is very simple. We shall divide the property in this way. One of you will have the right to choose which of the two parts he prefers.” In this way the matter was settled.
A BROKEN VASE
A young man was going to marry a beautiful girl. One day the girl said to him that the next day she would celebrate her birthday and invited him to her birthday party. The young man was eager to take her a present, so he went to a gift shop. There he saw many beautiful things. Of all the things he particularly liked the vases. But they were very expensive, and as he had very little money he had to leave the shop without buying anything.
Making for the door he suddenly heard a noise: one of the vases fell on the floor and broke to pieces. A brilliant idea came to his mind. He came up to the counter and asked the salesman to wrap up the broken vase. The salesman got a little surprised but did what the young man had asked him to. The young man, feeling very happy, took the parcel and went straight to the girl’s place.
By the time he entered the room the guests had already gathered. Everybody was enjoying the party. Some of the people were dancing, others were talking, joking and laughing. Saying “Many happy returns of the day ”, the young man told the girl that he had bought a small present for her. With these words he began to unwrap the parcel. Suddenly he got pale and said: “I am afraid, I have broken it. There were so many people in the bus…” But when he unwrapped the parcel, he saw that the salesman had wrapped up each piece of the vase separately.
COFFEE AND TEA
Coffee and tea were not known in Europe two hundred years ago. People were afraid to drink them because they thought that coffee or tea could kill a person. Once the king of Sweden decided to find out whether it was true or not. At that time two brothers were in prison. They were twins and were much alike. They had committed a crime and had been sentenced to death. The king said: “I shall let them live but they must drink coffee or tea every day”. They both lived many years. At last one of the brothers died when he was 83 years old. The other died a few years later. In this way it was proved that neither tea nor coffee was harmful to man.
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