There was a king who thought that he could paint very well. His pictures were bad, but the people to whom he showed them were afraid of the king. They all said that they liked his pictures
very much.
One day the king showed his pictures to a great painter who lived in his country and asked:
"I want to know what you think of my pictures. Do you like them? Am I a good painter or not?
The painter looked at the king's pictures and said:
"My king, I think that your pictures are bad, and that you will never be a good painter."
The king got very angry and sent the painter to prison. After two years the king wanted to see the painter again.
"I was angry with you", he said, "because you did not like my pictures. Now forget all about it. You are a free man again and I am your friend."
For many hours the king talked with the painter, and even asked him to dine. After dinner the king showed his pictures to the painter and asked: "Well, how do you like them now?"
The painter did not answer anything. He turned to the soldier who was standing near him and said: "Take me back to prison."
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A BROKEN VASE
The young man was going to marry a beautiful girl. One day the girl said to him that the next day she would celebrate her birthday and invited him to her birthday party. The young man was eager to make her a present, so he went to a gift shop. There he saw many beautiful things. Of all the things he particularly liked the vases. But they were very expensive, and as he had very little money he had to leave the shop without buying anything. Making for the door he suddenly heard a noise: one of the vases fell on the floor and broke to pieces. A brilliant idea came to his mind. He came up to the counter and asked the salesman to wrap up the broken vase he wanted to buy. The salesman got a little surprised but did what the young man had asked him to do.
The young man took the parcel and went straight to the girl’s place. By the time he entered the room the guests had already gathered. Everybody was enjoying the party. Some of the people were dancing, others were talking, joking and laughing. Saying “Many happy returns of the day”, the young
man told the girl that he had bought a small present for her. With these words he began to unwrap the parcel. Suddenly he got pale and said. “I am afraid, I have broken it. There were so many people in the bus…” But when he unwrapped the parcel, he saw that the salesman had wrapped up each piece of the
vase separately.
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