The king had been eating in a tremendous way and that was the reason that he had gained weight and his abdomen was huge. He called his physicians and wise men asking them for a prodigious diet.
The physicians and wise men decided to cover all the walls of the castle with mirrors so the king could see his extreme obesity and would decide to lose weight. But it happened different, and the king called the physicians and wise men and threw them out of the palace, saying:
" Your diet has not worked, see how terrible my over weight is now."
Because the king was very temperamental and thought that nobody could help him lose weight.
But a simple, humble looking man arrived and said to the king. " Sir, I only ask for half of your kingdom, give me one day only, and give me during that day, the strongest men of your kingdom and also give me that day the effort of work of all men and women of your kingdom. And if you cannot lose weight in one day, then, I will give you my life in return.
" Your diet has not worked, see how terrible my over weight is now."
Because the king was very temperamental and thought that nobody could help him lose weight.
But a simple, humble looking man arrived and said to the king. " Sir, I only ask for half of your kingdom, give me one day only, and give me during that day, the strongest men of your kingdom and also give me that day the effort of work of all men and women of your kingdom. And if you cannot lose weight in one day, then, I will give you my life in return.
"The king watched himself on the mirror and said: " I don't know whether you are impertinent, mad or wise but the fact is that I will not take jokes. I will measure your skill and if it does not work, you'll pay with your life. The day starts now, I will leave and will be back tomorrow at this same time and we will see if what you say, works."
"Yes, sir" said the humble man. And as soon as the king left, the humble man asked that all the things of the palace were removed and taken to his house. The guards and subjects presented some resistance at the beginning to obey those orders but they obeyed afterwards. When all the things were removed from the palace, that humble man ordered new furniture brought, but these were gigantic, like ten times bigger, and it was the same with all the chairs, armchairs, clothes. But the mirrors he ordered to be smaller, no larger than one finger. When they were installing the last mirror, the king came back to his palace and he noticed something strange had happened. All things seemed to have grown, he then called the humble man, who said: " Sir, sit down in your kingdom, lie down in your bed, put on your clothes, look at yourself in the mirror." And when the king did this, he called his notary and said: " Give this man half of my kingdom. Look at my clothes, they are loose on me. Look how I lose myself in my chairs and bed. What a mystery! I don't know how but I have lost a lot of weight very fast."
And the story goes that the king kept on eating but he didn't felt obese any more because his clothes, bed, and chairs were too big for him. And the humble man got half of the kingdom.
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Author and artist
Oscar Basurto Carbonell
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