Famous Fables

This is a story that has been passed down through the ages in the Sullivan family.

It seemed there was an island nation that existed at one time and practiced old time traditions. All the island residents lived in a simple unspoiled manner in thatched huts woven from the thick grasses of the island. Their only non-food product was gold from a small mine which they had pretty much mined out over the years .

They kept only a small portion of the gold for themselves to make jewelry. However, each year they rewarded their king for his wise leadership by matching his weight with the gold they mined. "The Weighing of the King" ceremony was the source of a huge celebratory dinner and dance.

The natives noticed their leader, King Lotsame, seemed to be packing on a few more pounds each year, but they said nothing for fear of punishment.

Recently the King had ordered that all of the gold he had received through the years, as well as the natives jewelry, must be melted down and turned into a throne appropriate for a leader of his stature. It was from this huge throne that he dispensed favors and various rulings from his hut.

This was a closed society. Nobody outside the island knew about King Lotsame's enormous wealth nor how he had attained same. But, alas and alack, as often happens, a dissident who was missing his gold bracelets, but not authorized to discuss the subject, let it slip in a note he deposited in a bottle and cast out to sea.

The bottle came ashore in some far away country . Their representatives immediately established an expedition to investigate the island and the king's enormous wealth. (The dissident had apparently been considerate enough to provide directions to the island in a separate bottle which arrived the following day.)

Weeks later, one of the island spotters located on the highest point of the island noted a boat in the distance and alerted the king. It was not long before the king's council met, unraveled the tale regarding the bottle thrower, had him put to death and established a way to discourage the invaders.

The island wizard, "Obamarama", came up with the plan. The natives would add a second floor to the kings hut . They would then stow the kings throne on the second floor away from the prying eyes of the invaders. When the intruders left, the throne would then resume it's normal position on the first floor, and all would be as before.

The invaders landed and showed the natives their weapons. Two of their entourage demanded that they be taken to their leader. The remaining intruders remained with the boat and discussed global warming.

King Lotsame greeted the two representatives in the room that previously housed his throne. Employing a universal sign language, he and his visitors began to discuss the weather. It was at this point that the invaders heard a gnawing sound overhead. Fearing an ambush, they jumped up from the hut floor and ran in the direction of their boat.

The King, being rather enormous these days, was not as fleet-footed. The throne fell through the ceiling, landed on him full force, and killed him instantly.

The moral of the story was obvious to even the least sophisticated native:

"People who live in grass houses should not stow thrones".