The slave of an ancient king used to tell his master five stories every night. One night the king was disturbed by a great care; he did not sleep even after eight stories. And so he asked for eight stories again, which did not please the slave. "Master, what you wanted has already been done."
The king answered, "The stories which you told me were many, but short. I want a long story which has many words."
Then the slave began, "Once there was a farmer who had much money. In a town he gave money to a man and receved a hundred sheep. While he is leading these animals back, he comes near to a river, without any bridges, in which there is a great amount of water that day; and so he sees no way by which he can drive the sheep though the water. Finally he saw a boat in which two animals were placed and carried by the farmer."
When he said these words the slave was silent. The king begged him in this way: "Tell me the rest of your story."
The former answered, "The river is wide and deep, the boat is small, and there are many animals. If this farmer leads all his animals across the river, I will bring to an end the story which I began."
No comments:
Post a Comment