The King's Clown

There once was a King who had a very funny Court Jester. The Clown could impersonate anyone of importance in the kingdom and as such the old King found him very amusing. His favourite act was doing his own version of the wise and venerated old King much to everyone's enjoyment and wholehearted laughter. What could the King do but tolerate the clown's antics along with everyone else. To admonish him just wouldn’t do as it would show him to be a sour old puss. So he laughed along with all the rest when the funny clown did his little act of playing King for the day. It was all very funny until the King was called away to a foreign land on some serious business and left the clown and the court all unattended for a short while. Somehow the crazy Jester got it into his head that with the true King gone out of town, that he would take it on himself to be a real King and ruler of the Crown for a short while. After all, no kingdom can be left without any ruler whatsoever. So he acted the King again, looking much like the old sovereign and having all his little mannerisms, he convinced everyone for a while that he was indeed the true King on the throne, and no-one else. He cracked a joke from time to time which seemed to please the crowd and his rule looked fine for a while. However, it soon became apparent to all that he was insane nonetheless. This was when he started silencing all his critics with severe punishment, even hanging a few by the roadside just for show. He shut down the town's press and banned all papers that were posted claiming that he was just the local clown caught up in an act and no king at all. All this was done under the harshest threat of harm and prison time. He was well pleased with himself for quite a while, until the true King returned home one day from his foreign trip. When the King caught the clown in the very act of playing the sole ruler of the crown he grew very angry, and had him severely whipped in public for all to see. Thereafter he was sent to prison for a very long time. The crown and country soon recovered under their true King and all went well once again for all. All except the foolish clown who decided to play King and Lord of all. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to go above your rank and file. And they almost all lived happily ever after. All except the sorry clown himself. You can fool some of the people some of the time.