((This story is adapted from an episode in Guy De Maupassant's work 'Sur L 'eau' in French ( Translated into English : Afloat ) and Translated from Russian by Louise Maud and Aylmer Maud.))
TOO DEAR ( expensive)
-Leo Tolstoy
👉🗾Monaco is a small kingdom lies near the borders of France and Italy. There are only about 7000 inhabitants in Monaco. This toy kingdom has a real kinglet🤴 and like any other real king , he lives in a palace with courtiers, ministers, a bishop, generals and an army of only sixty soldiers. Being very small the taxes the people pay for their drinking and smoking are not adequate enough to feed the king's courtiers, and officials and to keep himself. Therefore the king had hit upon a new sources of revenue. It came from a gambling house🏚️, where people play roulette. The keeper of the gaming house gets a percentage on the turnover irrespective of whether people loose or win. Out of this profits the gaming house keeper pays a large sum to the kinglet.
👉Monaco a peaceful land, besider it a murder was take committed in the prince of Monaco's domains. A legal system came into existence in the state. There were judges and prosecutors, jurymen and barristers. The criminal was tried according to the procedures of law. A problem was arise in the execution of the king's order. Monaco kingdom did not have either a guillotine for cutting head off or an executioner.
👉First the king of Monaco approached to the France government to send guillotine machine & expert, the France govt. Demanded 1600 francs, the king think it is costly, and the relations with France was not so good, by this reason he had approached to Italy government, Italy government had friendly relations with his kingdom, so the Monaco's king send the letter to Italy and the Italian king was ready to send guillotine machine and expect man, they charged 600 francs, it is also no affordable to the Monaco king. Again the council met and decide to ask one of their army soldiers to do it, but no soldier agreed to do it, yet again the council met and agreed to reduce the death sentence to life imprisonment. A ideal place was found and they agreed to dismiss the guard & let the prisoner run away, to reduce the expenses incurred in feeding the criminal. But the prisoner didn't run away but went for his food at the place at the proper time and stayed inside.
👉The ministers asked the prisoner to run away but he replied " he had no where to go because his reputation was ruined and he got adjusted this way of lazy with free food etc.
👉The council of ministers then agreed to give him a pension of 600 francs to which he agreed and took 1/3 rd of his pension in advance and left the kingdom to a neighbouring country. Quarter of an hour by rail . He purchased a piece of land and started farming and collected his pension at proper time. He also gambled a little of this money. He lived peacefully & well.
It was a good thing that he didn't commit the crime in a country where the government doesn't hesitate to bear the expenses to cut a man's head off or to imprison him for life.😄
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