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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!aecom!sanders
From: sanders@aecom.UUCP (Jeremy Sanders)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: a story with a moral (oh no!)
Message-ID: <300@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Dec-83 01:17:22 EST
Article-I.D.: aecom.300
Posted: Fri Dec  9 01:17:22 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Dec-83 02:13:44 EST
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 86


        Once upon a time, in a kingdom far  away,  here  lived  a
King.  Now  this  King ruled a (for the time) nice sized kingdom,
his most prized possesion was a small orchard just a  little  way
from  his castle. In that orchard, and only in that orchard, grew
the most  delicious  fruit  on  earth.   Now  the  fame  of  this
marvelous fruit spread across the land, and attracted mush praise
(and business) to the kingdom, as well as plenty of sly  thieves.
Sure  enough,  every year that passed, more and more of the fruit
was stolen, until finally, one year all the fruit was gone.

        Naturally, this enraged the King considerably, so much so
that  he  asked a wizard who was visiting the kingdom (in hope of
getting some of the wonderous fruit at the King's table) to  cast
a  spell  to  stop  the  thieves,  for all the King's guards (and
horses) had failed to do so. The wizard, who was disappointed  by
the lack of fruit, agreed.

        The spell  that  the  wizard  had  cast  did  not  become
apparent  until  the  next  year, when the thieves tried to steal
some of the newly ripening fruit.  Before the very  eyes  of  the
king's  guards,  a huge yellow hand descended upon the supposedly
empty orchard they were watching, and plucked the  first  of  the
season's  thieves  out  of the trees, and carried him up into the
clouds, never to be seen  again.  This  did  not  discourage  the
intrepid  thieves  however,  so that there was a steady stream of
thieves flying skyward in the  unbreakable  grip  of  the  yellow
fist. And the King was mightily pleased.

        Now as the season went on, it came time for the fruit  to
be  picked  by  the King's servants. But lo and behold, the great
yellow hand descended out of the sky and picked them up too.  The
King  was  vastly  displeased  by  this  turn of events, and, not
having had a ripe piece of the miraculous fruit in nearly a year,
ordered  more  of  his  servants into the orchard. Naturally, the
King rapidly had several less  servants.  The  King  was  adamant
about  getting  the  fruit,  but  his  rather  reluctant servants
threatened to complain to thier union, and so  the  King  (rather
ungracefully) gave in.

        But the King was not to be stopped. He promptly issued  a
decree  promising a thousand gold pieces, an Earldom, an his only
daughter in marriage to the first man (this  was  before  women's
lib) who could bring even a single one of the incredible fruit to
his table. With so great a reward dangling in front of them, many
came  to  try  there luck with the enourmous yellow hand. But all
failed, no matter what tactic they devised to  evade  the  yellow
hand.  After nearly a month a passed, and the wonderous fruit was
already starting to fall from the trees and  rot,  and  now  more
bold (or desperate) men came to attempt the yellow hand, the King
(in tears) went to the perimeter of the  orchard  to  bid  a  sad
farewell. Now as the King looked out upon the orchard, his little
page looked up to him, and said, "Your Majesty, I  will  get  you
one  of  the  remarkable fruit." The King looked down at his page
and answered  "Don't  be  silly  boy."  But  the  young  lad  was
determined,  and  the  King,  in his greedy desire for the fruit,
permitted the page to go.  No  sooner  had  the  King  given  his
permission  to  the page, the page scampered across the meadow up
to the orchard. Just as the page grabbed one  of  the  fruit  the
vast  yellow hand descended from the sky and grabbed him.  But as
the hand began to lift the page upward, the page (who was  rather
small even for his age) slipped through the giant fingers and ran
out of the orchard to claim his reward.

	The Moral of this story is:
















Let your pages do the walking through the tellow fingers


		Still can't believe I typed the whole thing in,
					Jeremy Sanders