Summary of the chapter in the kingdom of fools

Summary of The Kingdom of Fools

Kingdom of Fools is an amusing story describing beautifully the nature and behavior of foolish people. The story is a famous Kannada folktale.

Once there was a kingdom of fools which was governed by an idiot king and stupid minster. Since they were foolish they ordered their people to work during the night and sleep during the day. It was ordered if anyone disobeyed he/she would surely be killed.

One day a guru and his disciple arrived in the kingdom and found the city empty. However, as the evening approached, the city became full of activities. They went to a shop to buy some food, and were amazed to find that the cost of everything was the same. They bought so much food with just one rupee.

The guru concluded the city was full of fools. So he suggested to his disciple that they should leave it immediately; but the disciple wanted to stay there and enjoy eating the cheap food. But the guru was determined to leave and warned the disciple to beware as he could be in trouble. The disciple continued to enjoy his stay at the kingdom of fools. Soon he grew fat and stocky.

One day a curious incident happened at the kingdom of fools. A thief broke into a rich merchant’s house; and as he was sneaking out of the house with the plunder through the hole, the wall collapsed and he died.

The thief’s brother demanded justice from the king; he accused the merchant of getting a poor quality wall built that killed his brother. The foolish king assured the thief’s brother of justice. He sent for the merchant and declared that he would be punished. The merchant pleaded to the king that he was not guilty as he had not built the wall. So, the bricklayer who had built the wall many years ago was called.

The bricklayer pleaded to the king it was not his fault as he had been distracted by a dancing girl who kept coming and going with her anklet jingling. The dancing girl was called. She had become quite old now. She pleaded she was moving up and down because the goldsmith jeweler was making her come and go; he was delaying making some jewelry for her.

The goldsmith was called and he passed the blame onto the same rich merchant at whose house the wall had fallen. The merchant again pleaded that the wall had been built during his father’s time and he was dead. The king finally decided to punish the merchant.

The preparations for execution were made. The execution stake was made. But it was found the merchant was too thin for the stake. They needed someone who could fit the stake. Finally a fat man was found; the fat man turned out to be the disciple. He said he was innocent; but the king’s men would not listen.

The disciple then remembered his guru’s words and prayed to him for help. The guru had powers; he came to know his disciple was in trouble. So he reached the kingdom of fools to help him. He whispered something into his ear. Then the guru and disciple acted wonderfully and convinced the king that the person who would be executed first will become the king of the kingdom in the next birth and the person who would be executed the second, would be the minister of the kingdom.

The king needed sometime to think. He wanted to be the king of his kingdom in the next birth also. He wanted his foolish minister to be his minster in the next birth too. So he decided himself and his minister to be executed. He ordered the guru and the disciple to be executed. But at night he freed the guru and his disciple and put their clothes on. King’s men executed the king and the minster considering them to be the guru and the disciple. They came to know this truth when their bodies were being disposed of.