Friday, January 30, 2015

Quest for fools

There was a ruler of a dynasty who called upon his deputy. When the deputy arrived, the ruler said to him, "I know there are lot of intelligent people in our kingdom. Similarly, there should also be no dearth of fools."

The deputy answered, "I am sure there would be many, sire."

The ruler then said, "I want you to search the kingdom and find me 5 such fools."

The deputy said he would, and left the ruler's court. The deputy was perplexed with the task of finding fools. He wondered how would he ever manage to catch hold of 5 fools.

The deputy returned to the court after four weeks and presented 2 men before the ruler.

The ruler said, "I think I wanted to see 5 fools. Why have you brought only 2 men?"

The deputy said, "Please let me explain, sire. I searched the length and breadth of the Kingdom. I found this fellow carrying a heavy bag of wheat on his head while he was seated in a mule-driven cart. When I asked him why he had not placed the bag on the cart, he replied that it would add to the mule's burden. I realized I had found the 5th candidate in the list of fools and brought him here."

The ruler said, "Good. What about the next guy?"

The deputy continued, "I found this other fellow feeding sweets to his cow so that it delivers sweet milk. I knew I had found the 4th candidate in the fools' list."

The ruler said, "All right. What about the other two fools?"

The deputy replied, "When there are so many social & economic problems to resolve in this kingdom, I am wasting my time looking for fools in this kingdom. Thereby, I am the 3rd fool."

The ruler laughed and said, "Ok, who is next?"

The deputy replied, "When our enemies are knocking at our doorstep,and instead of attending to security issues and issues related to the welfare of the people of this dynasty, you are looking out for fools, that makes you the 2nd candidate in the list of fools."

The entire court went into silence.

The ruler said, "You are right and I appreciate your courage. Tell me, who is the 1st fool?"

The deputy replied, "Sire, when there is so much work to finish at office and at home, the one who is reading this joke leaving aside everything else is the 1st fool!"