In the Kingdom of Fools

 -- A Kannada folktale from A. K. Ramanujan’s

Folk Tales from India

Poor administration and whimsical rules

In the Kingdom of Fools, both the king and minister were idiots. They decided to change night into day and day into night. They ordered people to be awake at night and do all other work only after dark. They were to sleep when the sun came up. People obeyed them for fear of death. The successful imple…