Wisdom story: The king's blind trust

Once upon a time, there lived a king who ruled a small kingdom that was full of vineyards, and most of his subjects produced wine. No neighboring kingdom could match the quality, taste, and quantity of wine they produced. Since the kingdom produced more than it consumed it made a fortune selling the wine to its neighboring kingdoms. The king made sure his subjects had everything they needed to keep producing the best wine and he always looked for ways to make his subjects even happier and more content, so that they would continue with their work and not relocate to other kingdoms. His strategy worked well and all of the 20.000 families living and working in the kingdom were very loyal to him. For several years the king had been studying the finances of his kingdom. He was a just ruler, full of understanding and he tried very hard to be able to lower taxes so that there would be more left for his subjects. Finally one day it dawned on him. He decided to abolish taxes. His advisers were shocked and reminded the king why they had taxes in the first place. They needed the money to run the kingdom. They needed to pay everyone from the ones who took care of general public things to the army that protected them from any enemies. The king calmed his advisers by explaining his plan. The plan was to abolish taxes but at the same time, he will ask each of his subjects to contribute one jug of their best wine once a year during the bottling season and pour it into a large barrel the size of more than twenty thousand liters, which will be set up until then. From selling those twenty thousand liters of wine, they will get money for the royal budget, health insurance, army, education, and more. The advisers were in doubt as they were sure that there would be a person or two that would find a way to take advantage of the king’s blind trust. But the king didn’t want to hear anything about it.

The news spread throughout the kingdom like wildfire. The joy of the people was indescribable as they celebrated for many days and nights and sang songs and toasted drinks in the king’s honor. After a couple of days of celebrating, things returned to how they were. People worked hard in their vineyards, children went to school, and the kingdom flourished as never before. Finally, the day of the tax arrived. Throughout the week, residents reminded each other on the roads, in markets, and in churches not to forget their obligation. The citizens wanted to return the favor to the king and prove to him that his “blind trust” was not in vain. Whole families of winemakers came to the palace from dawn until dusk, where the fathers of the families one by one climbed up to the top of the enormous royal barrel, emptied their jug, and descended on a different ladder so that the next winemaker could come and pour his wine as fast as possible. When they descended from the barrel they would receive a royal badge with the unique royal crest from the royal treasurer that would prove their solidarity with the kingdom.

At the beginning of the evening, when the last winemaker had emptied his jug, it became clear that no one was missing. The royal barrel of twenty thousand liters was full. The king was proud of all his subjects and pleased that they had not taken advantage of his “blind trust”, as his advisers put it. Now that everyone had gathered in the square in front of the palace, the king ordered his most trusted advisor to bring some of the collected wine in the royal crystal cup that had been handed down from king to king as long as the kingdom had existed. He raised the cup and said to his subjects, “There is no other way to express my appreciation for your hard work, trust, and loyalty than to say THANK YOU and to do my best to make your life as good as possible. This “experiment of blind trust” that some have mocked me for the past year has now proved to everyone that our kingdom is strong and that we care deeply for each other. Our kingdom will continue to flourish because we have proven that we all contribute to the prosperity of the entire kingdom. And for that, I want to toast you all with the first glass of this wine that we all created.”

Everyone that was attending this event was crying and applauding after the king’s speech.  As the king was about to take his first sip from the cup his hand stopped in surprise. The reason being is that the liquid was transparent and colorless. He slowly put the cup to his nose, which was trained to smell the best wines, and surprisingly found that the liquid was also odorless. Still not sure what to think of the situation and since he was an excellent wine taster, he slowly brought the cup to his mouth and took a sip. The wine didn’t taste like wine, or anything else. The king ordered another cup of wine from the barrel to be brought to him, and it was the same, tasteless and without any aroma. So he ordered another, and again nothing. Finally, he ordered that they must bring him a cup of wine from the top of the barrel. Again no luck, it was the same, the liquid was odorless, colorless, and tasteless. At that moment the king stopped the celebration to find out what was going on. Everyone returned to their homes and were surprised by what could have happened to the wine.  

The king quickly summoned all the alchemists of the kingdom to study the composition of the wine. The decision was unanimous, the barrel was full of water. Clean water like the one from the river under the royal bridge that went all through the kingdom. Then the king had all the wise men and sorcerers of the kingdom gathered in order to unravel the mystery as soon as possible. What spell, chemical reaction, or magic happened to turn the wine mixture into water? The oldest minister of the royal court walked up to the king and whispered in his ear, “A miracle? A spell? A transformation? Nothing like that has happened my dear king, nothing of the kind. Your subjects are human that’s all.” The king looked at the wise man in astonishment, “I don’t understand.” 

The wise man continues, “Let’s take John for example. He has a huge vineyard that stretches from the mountain to the river. The grapes he plucks are the best, and his wine is the best-selling and most expensive in the kingdom. Not long after you announced your tax reform, he and the other winemakers often wandered into the local taverns where they drank and made jokes about how nobody would have noticed if a couple of them would pour water from the river into braided jugs as nobody could see what was actually in the jug and then pour the water into the barrel where the water would mix with the wine everyone else poured in. And it’s true nobody would have noticed, they were right. But there was one small detail that they all overlooked. By the time the royal donation was due everyone has heard of this joke and every one of them thought the same. So everyone did the same and thus you my dear king have received twenty thousand liters of fresh water instead of wine.” The king was without words as he had just realized that his people even though he did a good deed for them ended up taking advantage of his blind trust.