A Fable for Aesop

You surely know that in the olden days kings kept in the courts a person
called the Jester -- a kind of clown or joker, who was appointed to make
the king and his courtiers laugh in every way he could. Once upon a time
there reigned a good king named Rajendra. To get his laughs, the Jester
would make fun of everyone in the kingdom; no one was spared. Even the
King himself, who was fat, jovial and had long white whiskers, was a
frequent butt of his jokes. But the King was a great fan of Jester, and he
considered his day well begun if he could snatch some time to read the
day's joke, posted by Jester on the throne-room wall.
But Rajendra was old, and his days were numbered. It was difficult now for
Jester to bring even a smile to his face. Eventually the King died of his
mortal illness. His son, whose name was Murkha, mounted the throne to rule
in his place. Now this King had had an unhappy childhood, in spite of
being a pampered prince (or perhaps just because of that) and had become
bitter. Murkha had developed a permanent scowl on his face. He did not
approve of laughter at all; it always disturbed him. So he sent out an
edict (that means a command) banishing all jokes and imposing heavy
penalties for disobeying. He went so far as to imprison the Jester because
the latter could in no way stop from smiling and making jokes of all
kinds. That was his life, after all! So the king threw him into a dungeon.

Even in the dungeon the Jester kept on smiling and thinking up jokes and
in this way relieved the monotony of imprisonment. But throughout the
country, the slightest sight of a smile resulted in the king's spies
reporting to him and those people were picked up and fined or put in jail.

The news went out to the animals of the forest. They already had an Animal
Union and the president of the Union called a meeting and spoke to them
this way: "We have accepted the rule of human beings for all these ages.
One of the reasons was that they could laugh and we could not. Now they
cannot laugh. So where is their superiority over us? So now, charge, all
of you; charge the city!! No more of human bondage!"
They all marched into the City, all kinds of animals: bears and tigers and
wolves and antelopes and snakes and rats and spiders and mosquitoes -- and
the city was conquered. King Murkha was captured. The animals again got
together to elect a new king, their king. Suddenly there came a boisterous
laughter that startled everyone.
It was the Jester, laughing to see the king held captive by a cordon of
cats and
dogs and mice and so on.
Now the president of the Animal Union came to his senses. He had to make
a quick decision. "This city life," he said, "is not for us, we know it.
Here is a man
who can laugh. Let him be the King, for he will surely bring back laughter
into all the country." The Union agreed, and the Jester was duly crowned
King.