“But no one will serve us.”
“What does it matter? They needn’t. They’ll have more time for work. There’s the manure to cart; heaps of it lying about.”
When people came to Ivan for justice and said, “That man stole my money,” Ivan said, “Never mind; he must have wanted it.”
And all realized that Ivan was a fool. And his wife said to him, “People say you are a fool.”
“What does it matter?” Ivan said.
His wife reflected awhile, but she was also a fool.
“Why should I go against my husband?” she said. “Where the needle goes, the thread follows.”
So she took off her royal robes, put them away in a chest and went to Malania to learn to work. When she knew how, she began to help her husband.
All the wise left Ivan’s kingdom, and only the fools remained.
Nobody had money. They lived and worked, fed themselves and others.