Once there was a king. He likes to write stories, but his stories were not good. As people were afraid of him, they all said his stories were good.

One day the king showed his stories to a famous writer. He waited the writer to praise these stories. But the writer said his stories were so bad that he should throw them into fire. The king got very angry with him and sent him to prison¹.

After some time, the king set him free. Again he showed him some of his new stories and asked what he thought of them.

After reading² them, the writer at once turned to the soldiers and said: “ Take me back to prison, please.”

中文：

从前有一个国王，他喜欢写故事，但是他写的故事很不好。人们怕他，都说他的故事好。有一天国王把他的故事给一名作家看，他想要作家赞扬他的这些故事，而作家说他的故事是如此的差以至于该扔进火里。国王很生气，把他送到监狱。

过了些日子，国王给了作家自由。国王重新将自己的一些新故事给作家看并问他感觉怎么样。

作家看了之后立刻转身对士兵说着；“请把我送回监狱吧。”