Story: The Kings

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There was once a village in Africa. There the men sat next to their wives and lived. One day, the elder of the village stood up and said, "We are kings. We were blessed with curly, dark hair! Surely we have money, wealth, treasures that we would be responsible for."

And with that the men began searching. They searched in their homes, up the trees, and even dug into the earth. Aha! There they found gold, copper, silver and diamonds. They came together and tried to figure the best way to handle it. They all concluded that they would sell a nice chunk of these precious stones to foreign lands and with the money they received, place it in a bank and live off of the dividends. After many years of this, they would check to see if they should sell another chunk and how much, etc. It was decided.

Much time passed and their plan was working smoothly.

They would sing praises and dance, lifting one foot and then hopping onto the other foot and back again. They also clapped their hands in joy. They chased away any evil that would touch them this way. They had joy.

One day a boat appeared in the horizon. "What picture is on the sails?" asked the elder. "No picture. It is just white" replied the watchguard of the village.

The boat came to their shores and many business men came out. They all had on suits and a briefcase to boot. Their crew cut glistened as gold as the gold they had bought from this village.

"We are here to learn from your culture. It seems quite primitive. And cute. My name is Mr. Aleks. Mr. Am Aleks at your service!"

The elder became distrustful. He knew there was a lie somewhere but couldn't find it. "Get away from our village!" He cried. But the visitors silenced him.

"How come there aren't so many stores in this place. We see huts, we see the marketplace and a few stores but not so many stores."

"The more stores the more strife. We have peace and a unity of will here that is why there are not so many markets." replied some of the villagers.

The visitors smiled. One leaned over to a villager and whispered, "my friend here is prettier than you." The villager was befuddled. The visitor said it again, "My friend is much prettier than you can ever hope to be!" The villager became angry.

A child who was looking on at the whole scene said, "be careful! Remember what the elder taught us? Anger is the hammer that breaks the blessings of wealth." But it was too late, the villager was already imbalanced. Seething he hit the child for his impudence. "How dare you speak to me like that?!" The mother of the child came to the child's defense. And finally the whole town was in turmoil.

Soon there were many camps and no heads. The visitors were more able to overtake the village and gained control of the mines.

The visitors did not share any of it with these "kings". And many starved and died. Until one day...

The end.