A Fairy Tale

nce upon a time, there was a young and handsome king. The king was very popular with most of the subjects in his kingdom. The king promised to take care of them, to provide them with cars and houses...all for free...at least that's how they heard it. The king promised to make everything right, for you see, the kingdom had hit upon some hard times. People were without jobs, and they were losing their homes because the mean ol' banks had loaned them money they couldn't have paid back on a bet.

There was also a lot of crime in the kingdom which the king vowed would be eradicated under his reign. The problem was the availability of rocks; the criminals were throwing rocks at innocent people. Some of the victims were just seriously injured while others were killed. Things were getting out of control, until the king came up with a plan.

"In order for people to feel safe in my kingdom, I must regulate rocks," he said. Rocks were already so much a part of kingdom life, the king knew he couldn't do away with them, but he could make them more difficult or expensive to obtain. "Beginning today, there shall be a 500 per cent tax on all rock sales," the king declared. "Once people cannot afford rocks, they will quit hurting people with them."

Miraculously, the king's plan worked. The criminals ¹ could no longer afford rocks and so they were no longer able to hurt people. Sadly, the rock manufacturers went out of business because no one was buying rocks anymore.

The End.

¹ It is a widely known fact that criminals are basically good people and would never think of stealing the rocks rather than purchasing them.