Tale#2

Take Your Lesson And Go! ©

The king of Bombella was old and yet he with alacrity did his duties. He knew his son was waiting for him to die. That didn’t stop him from holding on to his pomp and circumstance. He was the presiding deity of the province of A- . He didn’t fear any soul except the Emperor of Austria who had installed him into the throne, and of course he also feared his son, the whippersnapper who was in a hurry to replace him.
One day the heir apparent invited his father to a banquet and the aged king obliged him. He knew if he didn’t attend the boy would hold it against him and hate him. Anyway he attended the party and drank too much and next morning the chamberlain found his master dead. He raised the alarm and doctors were called and they said he died of natural death.
The heir apparent mourned and after having spent the required period of mourning he announced his intention to ascend to the throne. Unfortunately the Emperor of Austria took over the province under his own hands. Poor heir apparent, he was only left with a few personal belongings of his father. Among them was a sealed letter for his eyes only.
One paragraph in that parental missive struck his attention. “ Only the fear that the Emperor will not let you succeed prolongs my desire to continue my rule. In my absence you shall be no better than a vagabond. Who shall let you satisfy every whim you may have but I? So I shall keep holding this throne to let you live as you please.”
His years were next taken up in bitter regrets because he was on the skid-row and hated by all. He had no father to cushion his abject poverty.
One day the remains of his father were dug up by some accident and it struck all that he was preserved as though he lay asleep. Even after all these years. In those days forensic science wasn’t heard of, the world touted a miracle. His father had overnight become a saint! Only the son knew that inheritance powder or arsenic in his case had done the trick. So what he did do? He went and claimed the remains of his father and kept telling the world how saintly he was in his life and therefore God had worked a miracle!
Everyone draws lesson from whatever befalls him or her. But is it the right one?
benny