+
+
+ Once upon a time, in a far-off land, there was a very lazy king who
+ spent all day lounging on his throne. One day, his advisors came to him
+ with a problem: the kingdom was running out of money.
+
+
+ The King's Plan
+
+
+ The king thought long and hard, and finally came up with{" "}
+
+
+ a brilliant plan
+
+ : he would tax the jokes in the kingdom.
+
+
+ "After all," he said, "everyone enjoys a good joke, so it's only fair
+ that they should pay for the privilege."
+
+
+ The Joke Tax
+
+
+ The king's subjects were not amused. They grumbled and complained, but
+ the king was firm:
+
+
+ - 1st level of puns: 5 gold coins
+ - 2nd level of jokes: 10 gold coins
+ - 3rd level of one-liners : 20 gold coins
+
+
+ As a result, people stopped telling jokes, and the kingdom fell into a
+ gloom. But there was one person who refused to let the king's
+ foolishness get him down: a court jester named Jokester.
+
+
+ Jokester's Revolt
+
+
+ Jokester began sneaking into the castle in the middle of the night and
+ leaving jokes all over the place: under the king's pillow, in his soup,
+ even in the royal toilet. The king was furious, but he couldn't seem to
+ stop Jokester.
+
+
+ And then, one day, the people of the kingdom discovered that the jokes
+ left by Jokester were so funny that they couldn't help but laugh. And
+ once they started laughing, they couldn't stop.
+
+
+ The People's Rebellion
+
+
+ The people of the kingdom, feeling uplifted by the laughter, started to
+ tell jokes and puns again, and soon the entire kingdom was in on the
+ joke.
+
+
+
+
+
+ |
+ King's Treasury
+ |
+
+ People's happiness
+ |
+
+
+
+
+ |
+ Empty
+ |
+
+ Overflowing
+ |
+
+
+ |
+ Modest
+ |
+
+ Satisfied
+ |
+
+
+ |
+ Full
+ |
+
+ Ecstatic
+ |
+
+
+
+
+
+ The king, seeing how much happier his subjects were, realized the error
+ of his ways and repealed the joke tax. Jokester was declared a hero, and
+ the kingdom lived happily ever after.
+
+
+ The moral of the story is: never underestimate the power of a good laugh
+ and always be careful of bad ideas.
+
+
+