In the Kingdom of Fools by A.K.

Ramanujan
Summary

In the Kingdom of Fools by A.K. Ramanujan is a popular Kannada folk tale. The
story is about a strange kingdom where its king and ministers act as fools
profoundly. In comparison to other nearby kingdoms, their working methods and
operations were child-like and foolish in nature. Once they decided to go against
the phenomenal of day & night. They passed the order of calling day as night and
vice versa. And people of the kingdom were forced to work at night and sleep
during daylight.
Once a guru and his greedy disciple arrived to the kingdom, they found it
weird that in the daylight people were fast asleep and the streets were
deserted. Also in the city, they found that everything cost same, be it food or
clothing. They both enjoyed sumptuous food for some days together. Well,
one day the guru took leave by saying that this is the kingdom of fools and
anything can happen here. You cannot really trust fools. While the disciple,
being greedy about food, did not heed his words and decided to stay in the
city for the love of food. The guru was gone. The disciple grew fat in size
because of over-eating and sedentary lifestyle.

One day in a wealthy merchant’s home, a thief tried to break in for burglary.
He made a hole in the wall, while going the wall collapsed, killing him
instantly. The brother of the thief approached the king for justice. The king,
assuring him justice, called for the merchant. The merchant defending
himself said that the wall was old, built during the time of his father, who was
dead now. The merchant passed the blame on the bricklayer. The bricklayer
was called out soon, the bricklayer again passed the blame to a dancing girl.
When the dancing girl was called out, she passed the blame on a jeweler.
Unfortunately, the jeweler turned out be the merchant himself.

Though the fault was of his dead father. But the merchant inherited
everything from his father, so according to the king, the death punishment for
his father must be passed on to the merchant. Soon a stake for execution
(death) was made. However, the stake that was built turned out as heavy one
and the merchant was a thin man to be executed on it. Since all ministers and
their king were fools, they couldn’t think of any other option, hence said that
a fat man should be brought for the execution. The soldiers searched the town
and that fat disciple was found for execution.

Just before the death penalty could carry out, the disciple remembered his
guru. The guru being wise could see the things from his end; as an upshot he
appeared at the site to save the disciple. Firstly, he scolded the disciple for
being too relaxed in the country of fools. Next, he asked question about the
difference between guru and disciple to the king. The king replied that guru
was bigger than disciple. The guru requested the king to execute (hang) him
first. ‘Why?’ The king asked.
Guru said that the stake was brand new, so whosoever dies on it will be
reborn as a king of this kingdom. And the person dies second will be born as
a minister. The king believed the gossip of the guru, thus he discussed the
same with his minister. At any cost the king couldn’t lose his kingdom to any
random saint. Thus, they decided to die. At night they disguised themselves
as guru and disciple and in the morning, they were hanged. When people
found out that their king was dead – they took a sigh of relief. Afterwards
they requested guru and his disciple to take over the kingdom as a king and a
minister respectively.

So, if you see the conclusion, you will find that trusting fools is a grave
mistake that can put any one’s life on stake. Fools don’t know what to do,
they don’t know how to find a feasible solution to a specific problem.