5 August 2012
This is an old tale that I was once told a long time ago, I have decided to share it:
In a distant land far away, there was a man who travelled around the land placing wagers. The wager was simple, he asked anyone who was around to fill his bucket with whatever they wanted and if they filled up the bucket, then they could ask from him whatever they wanted. However, if they were unable to fill it up they lost whatever they had tried to use to fill up the bucket.
And so it was that many tried to fill the bucket with the wares that they produced, such as wine, yams, rice, etc. Still no one was able to fill the bucket and they lost huge portions of their wares. The man carried on like this from city to city until the King of the land heard of his wager; curious, the King invited the man to come to his Palace with his bucket. The King filled the bucket with gold coins and all manner of jewels but like all the others before him the bucket did not fill up. The King asked the man if this was some manner of sorcery and the man denied it saying that is simply impossible to fill up his bucket.
So the King mystified by this illusion called for his most trusted wise man. The wise man came and inspected the bucket, curious about what he had heard about it from the King. The wise man put down the bucket and smiled and he called for a small bag of sugar, the people laughed and jested knowing that one bag would surely not fill up the bucket. The wise man took a handful of sugar and rubbed it between his hands as he let it fall into the bucket, then he poured the rest of the bag into the bucket and before a stunned audience the bucket was filled and overflowing. The astounded King then asked the wiseman how this illusion came to be and the wiseman explained saying: this bucket is magical and contains in its bottom a concealed magical human eye. The problem was that the eye could never be filled but sprinkling the sugar the way he did, forced the eye to close and so he was able to fill up the bucket.
The man spoke up saying: Sire, now that you have won the wager you can ask anything you want from me. The King was furious realising that the man who came with the bucket had swindled his people with magic and his greed had led him to steal wealth from the people and the King. So the King replied: First return all that you have stolen and then I will have your head.
The End
An Old Tale • Opuss № I