Once upon a time there was a king (Green) from a far country who sent treasures to a Sneaky Servant who served the kingdom of Vale. Vale’s sneaky Servant promised to pay Green for these treasures out of Vale’s treasury. Sneaky Servant was in charge of the moneybags. I see to it you get paid, “he said.”
The kingdom of Vale generously supported weaker fiefdoms with lesser treasures. One in particular was the Fiefdom of Manx. Manx got seeds from Vale to grow cucumbers to help support himself, most of which he sold to the Kingdom of Vale. The Kingdom of Vale had all the cukes it could eat and the small investment the Kingdom of Vale made was honored by Manx selling the Cukes it did to Vale for less than he could have received at the village market. Manx didn’t have to go to the market on Saturdays and sit all day and Vale didn’t have to worry about cukes. It was a good arrangement based in trust and honesty. Vale was becoming weaker and weaker because Sneaky Servant was draining the treasury. In time Vale couldn’t even pay Manx for Cukes it had received. But Manx being a loyal fief continued to send Cukes hoping to help Vale survive.
By and by the kingdom of Vale was conquered by a Lord named Bink. Vale had borrowed much money from Lord Bink to do battle and had lost. Vale had to surrender to Bink and Bink took everything in Vale’s kingdom.
Much later Green, angry over the money that Bink had captured when conquering Vale that was not paid back to Green, decided that the support Vale had been giving to Manx was a conspiracy to do evil. Green went to Bink and said, “did you know that Vale was growing cucumbers on Manx’s land?” OOOOOO! Evildoers. There’s money in here somewhere Green said to Bink, “I’ll split it with you.” Besides, I have a secret weapon, “Sneaky Servant will testify and prove the evildoing” So Bink and Green decided to appeal to the grand Poo Bah and ask the grand Poo Bah to punish the deposed king of Vale for the evil of supporting a small fiefdom even though he had lost his head to Bink and was dead. “Dig em up” they said. Maybe he has a ring or something we can capture from the corpse.
The Poo Bah spent 2 full days listening to Green rant and rave about the evil dead king. Green kept insisting that the support and help Vale had been to Manx was wrong. Bink said to the grand Poo Bah that if he were to decide that Manx should have paid Vale back for the support from Vale when Bink conquered Vale that Bink was due the refund (which would be split).
The humble defense poor Manx could offer was shouted down by his accusers.
The king of Vale was still dead.
Sneaky Servant was just as sneaky and didn’t help anyone except himself.
The grand Poo Bah consulted all the stars in the heavens and pronounced that the king of Vale was still dead. No purpose would be served in digging him back up. Poo Bah decided that Manx should pay Bink and Green for the cucumber seeds Vale had given him. The fact that Vale owed Manx for Cukes when conquered by Binx was of no account to the Poo Bah. The fact that the arrangement was one of honest accommodation born of grace and trust made no difference. Everyone lost.
That is the essence of the justice I experienced in the last week. Thought you would want to know. The best thing to do ever is never go to court. Everyone loses.
No comments:
Post a Comment