In the Kingdom of Fools

In The Kingdom of Fools

Think about it

Question 1. What are the two strange things the guru and his disciple find in the Kingdom of Fools?

Answer: The two strange things the guru and his disciple find in the Kingdom of Fools are as follows:

a) The first strange thing is that everyone sleeps during the day and gets awaken to do their businesses as soon as it gets dark.

b) The second strange thing is that everything costs the same, a single duddu, - whether one buys a measure of rice or a bunch of bananas, it costs a duddu.

Question 2. Why does the disciple decide to stay in the Kingdom of Fools? Is it a good idea?

Answer: The disciple decides to stay in the Kingdom of Fools because he finds everything cheap there, and he also wants good, cheap food.

The guru tells him that it is not a good idea to stay there as they are all fools; that this system will not last very long, and he can’t tell what they will do to him next day.

Question 3. Name all the people who are tried in the king’s court, and give the reasons for their trial.

Answer: The people who are tried in the king’s court are the merchant, the bricklayer, the dancing girl, the goldsmith and the merchant once again.

First of all the merchant is tried by informing him that this man’s brother died because of his weak wall that fell on him while he was pursuing his ancient trade.

Next the bricklayer is tried by informing him that he is responsible for his brother’s death since he built the wall so weak that it fell on him and killed him.

The dancing girl is then summoned to the court because she distracted the attention of the bricklayer by walking up and down the road with jingling anklets while he was building the wall.

After that the goldsmith gets summoned for the dancing girl blames him for her movement up and down the road. She says that she had to walk several times to his shop because whenever she went there to take the jewellery, he made excuses that he would give it now and he would give it then and so on all day.

At last, the merchant is tried once again for the goldsmith blames him for not completing the dancing girl’s orders as he was busy with the jewellery order of the merchant.

Now the merchant says that he is innocent because he didn’t order the jewellery. It was his father who ordered the jewellery.

Question 4. Who is the real culprit according to the king? Why does he escape punishment?

Answer: According to the king, the real culprit is the merchant himself. He says that it is true that his father is the true murderer; that he is dead now, and so somebody must be punished in his place. As he has inherited his father’s riches and sins, he must die.

He escapes punishment because he appears so thin that he cannot executed properly on the stake.

Question 5. What are the Guru’s words of wisdom? When does the disciple remember them?

Answer: The Guru’s words of wisdom are that this is a kingdom of fools and it will not be a good idea for them to stay here as they are all fools; the system that is being implemented here will not last long, and he doesn’t know what they will do to him next.

The disciple remembers them when he is taken to the place of execution though he didn’t commit any crime. The reason is that he is fat enough to fit the stake.

Question 6. How does the guru manage to save his disciple’s life?

Answer: The guru manages to save his disciple’s life by expressing his desire that he wants to die first, and then put his disciple to the stake. This increases the curiosity of the king and he expresses his desire to know the reason.

The guru then says that that stake is the stake of god of justice; that it is new; and that has never had a criminal on it, and so whoever dies on it first will be reborn as the king of this country and whoever goes next will be the future minister of this country.

The foolish king doesn’t want to lose his kingdom to someone else in the next round of life, and so he tells his minister that it is not right to give over the kingdom to others in the next life. They, therefore, decide to go on the stake themselves thinking that they will be reborn as the king and the minister again.