Ninth Tale Of a Wise Man and a Simpleton #4
Wiseman’s words began to penetrate the other wise man’s ears until both were convinced that there really was no king in the world at all. Then Wiseman said, Wait until morning, when I will prove there is certainly no king.
Wiseman woke up the next day and woke the wise delegate saying, Come outside with me and I will show you that the whole world is deceived and how it is that the king does not exist.
The two went to the market square, where they encountered a soldier and accosted him, asking, Who is it that you serve?
He answered, The king.
Have you ever in your life seen this king?
He answered, No. 86
At this Wiseman exclaimed, You see, it is just nonsense!
After this, they encountered an army officer and began to converse with him before asking, Whom do you serve?
The officer answered, The king.
Have you ever seen the king?
No.
There you have it! he announced. You see with your own eyes that they are all deceived and that there is no king at all.
Thus they were convinced that the king did not exist.
Wiseman said, Come, let us travel together and I will show you how everyone throughout the whole world is deceived into believing such utter nonsense.
The two headed off into the world, and everywhere they went they found everyone deceived.
The nonexistence of the king became their prime example and they used the king as a criterion to assess just how deceived everyone was.
If one held as true that there was a king, this was only confirmation of their having been duped.
Just so, they gauged the world as they travelled on until they spent all that they had.
First they had to sell one horse and then the other, until they sold all their possessions and were left travelling by foot, still assessing the whole world and finding everyone hoodwinked.
So they became indigent vagabonds, lacking any esteem, as no one even took notice of these two paupers.
Thus they continued to take stock of the world until they reached the city where Chief Minister Simpleton lived.
In that city lived a true wonder worker who was held in very high esteem because he did genuinely extraordinary things.
He 87 was renowned among the nobility and esteemed by them, too.
When the two wise men came into the city and approached the wonder worker’s home, they saw many wagons stopped there with sick people, a good forty or fifty of them.
Wiseman assumed that a doctor lived there.
He wanted to go inside to meet him since he was also a great doctor. He asked, Who lives here?
A wonder worker, he was told.
At this, he burst out laughing. Turning to his wise friend, he said, Yet again, more trickery and nonsense. This is even greater nonsense than the hoax about the king. Listen, brother, I will show you how this is all a deception and how everyone has been hoodwinked to believe such frauds.
Meanwhile, they had grown hungry and they had three or four groschen left between them.
So they went to a public kitchen where one could order a meal for their three or four groschen.
They ordered food and it was brought. As they were eating, they got to talking and ridiculing the fraud and deception of this wonder worker.
The cook overheard them and got angry, since the wonder worker was highly regarded in town.
He said to them, Finish your food and get out.
Then, one of the wonder worker’s sons entered and the pair kept ridiculing the wonder worker in front of him. The cook berated them for mocking the wonder worker right in front of his son; he gave them a sound drubbing and kicked them out of the place.
Now the two were very angry. They wanted to bring charges against the one who had beaten them.
They decided to go to the proprietor of the place where they had left their sacks to seek 88 his advice on how to go about pressing charges against the cook at the public kitchen who had assaulted them.
They went to the proprietor and told him all about the beating they had received at the hands of the cook.
He asked them, What did he beat you for?
They told him that it was because they were talking about the wonder worker.
The owner replied, Of course it is not right that it should come to blows. But, in fact, you were wrong to speak so ill of the wonder worker, for he is very esteemed here.
The two saw that he, too, had been duped. They left him and found a local official. This official was a gentile. They told him the whole story about how they had been beaten and the official asked them, What did he beat you for?
Because we were talking about the wonder worker, they said.
Thereupon the official began doling out savage blows and kicked them out.
After they left him, they went to find a higher-ranking official who had more authority, but nothing led to any charges being brought.
They went from one person to the next, each with a higher rank, until they found themselves outside the chief minister’s palace where guards were stationed.
The minister was informed that someone wished to see him and he ordered that he be allowed inside.
So Wiseman came before the minister and as soon as he did, the minister recognized his old friend Wiseman immediately.
Wiseman, however, did not recognize Simpleton because of his current grandeur.
Right away, the minister began to speak to him, saying, Look how my simplicity has brought me to such grand heights and how low your wisdom has brought you. 89
At this Wiseman exclaimed, But you are my old friend Simpleton! We shall discuss all that later. At present, I am seeking a trial for an assault against me.
Simpleton asked him, Why were you beaten?
He answered, Because I was saying that the wonder worker was a fraud and a charlatan.
Simpleton the minister said to him, You continue to cling to your cleverness.
Look, you once said that you could arrive at my level quite easily but that I could never attain yours.
Now, behold, I have long ago attained your level and you still have not arrived at mine.
I see that it is far more difficult to be simple.
However, since the minister knew him from long ago when he was once great, he ordered that clothing be made for him and asked that he be brought some food.
While he was eating, they began chatting, and Wiseman started in with his idea about the nonexistence of the king.
At this the minister Simpleton cried, What are you talking about? ! I have seen the king myself!
Wiseman answered, laughing, But do you know for yourself that he was the king? Do you truly know it was he? Did you know his father or his grandfather and that they were kings, too? How do you know that this was really the king? Only because people told you it was! Just so have you been duped!
Simpleton grew very annoyed as he went on denying the existence of the king.
Just then, someone entered and announced, The Devil summons you.
Simpleton was startled by this and ran in terror to his wife.
In a fright he told her how the Devil had summoned him.
She 90 advised him to go send for the wonder worker.
So he did. The wonder worker came and gave him amulets and protective spells and told him that he had nothing to fear from now on.
Simpleton had great faith in all of this.
Later, he was back at the table together with Wiseman, who asked, Why did you get so frightened?
Why, because the Devil summoned us, he answered.
Wiseman laughed at him, You do not really believe in the Devil?
If not, Simpleton the minister asked, then who summoned us?
Wiseman answered him, It is undoubtedly my friend. He just wants to see me and so he concocted a ruse to summon me.
But then how did he get past all the guards? Simpleton asked.
No doubt he bribed them, and they knowingly lied about it, Wiseman answered.
Thereupon, a man entered and again announced, The Devil has summoned you.
This time Simpleton was not frightened. He had no fear because of the protections he had from the wonder worker. He turned to Wiseman and asked, So, what do you say now?
He answered, I say again that I have a friend who is annoyed with me and has made up this ruse to frighten me.
He then stood up and asked the one who had entered, How would you describe the face of the one who sent for us? What colour was his hair, and so forth?
After being told these details, he declared, You see? That is just what my friend looks like.
Simpleton replied, So will you go then? 91
Yes, he answered, I will. But would you allow me to bring a few soldiers to serve as bodyguards to protect me from trouble out there?
So Simpleton gave him some guards to accompany him.
Wiseman met his friend, the wise man, and the two went off with the man who had entered before to summon him. Although these wise men could not believe it, the man was dispatched by the Devil himself.
When the bodyguards returned, Simpleton the minister asked where the wise men were. They answered that they had no idea where they had disappeared to. For the messenger of the Devil had snatched the wise men and dragged them off into the muck and mire.
There the Devil sat on his throne in the muck, and this muck was thick and viscous like glue. The wise men could not move in the muck and they shouted, Bandits, why do you torment us? Are we to believe that there is a Devil in the world that torments us for no reason?
The wise men still could not bring themselves to admit the existence of the Devil, so they maintained that it was a gang of bandits that was tormenting them.
The two were left stuck in the viscous muck ruminating over their situation, This could only be those scoundrels whom we came to blows with before and now they are tormenting us like this.
So the wise men stayed stuck in the muck for some years, suffering extraordinary torment and torture.
Once, Simpleton the minister was passing by the wonder worker’s house and he thought about his old friend Wiseman.
92 He went into the wonder worker’s and bowed to him, as is the custom, and inquired if the wonder worker could possibly find a way to his friend and bring him back.
He asked the wonder worker, Do you recall the wise man whom the Devil summoned and then carried off, never to be seen again?
The wonder worker replied, Yes, I recall.
Simpleton the minister asked if he could point the way to the place Wiseman was in order to extricate him.
The wonder worker said, I certainly can show you the place and extricate him. But you and I must go alone.
So the two went together. The wonder worker did what only he knew to do and they arrived.
Simpleton saw how the men were stuck in the thick muck and mire.
As soon as Wiseman saw Simpleton, he cried out to him, See, my brother, how they beat me and how these bandits torture me so savagely for no reason!
The minister shouted back, You continue to cling to your cleverness and refuse to believe in anything!
You think these here are people? But now look: here is the wonder worker whom you once repudiated.
Will you at last see that none other than he could point the way here to get you out and lead you to the truth?
Simpleton asked the wonder worker if he could take them out of there and show them that this was indeed the work of the Devil and not of any human being.
So the wonder worker did what he did—and they found themselves suddenly standing on dry land and free of the muck. The demons turned to mere dust.
Then, for the very first time, the wise man recognized the truth and had to concede before everyone that there was, indeed, 93 a king and that there was, indeed, a genuine wonder worker who worked genuine wonders.
Look deep
into this tale and you will see wonder upon wonder.
If ever your devotion seems lacking,
it is but a three-sided shoe.
Know this
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