Crown

 

Crown

 

Saran  Rai 

He became unsuccessful and fell into financial trouble. He had no job, no business, no farming. When hunger began to strike, he came up with an idea — to make a crown and place it on the head of the greatest person in society as an act of honor.

“In this age of the republic, what’s the point of a crown?” people said.

“It’s not to make someone a king,” he replied, “but to honor the greatest person in society in the best possible way.”

Since it was a crown, of course it had to be expensive. Fearing that the reputation of their community would be tarnished, he collected many donations from everyone. The leaders, industrialists, businessmen, writers, social workers, and all other prominent people each thought of themselves as the greatest person in the community. They believed that they would be the ones to wear the crown. So everyone supported his plan. Some even began to flatter him for it.

“If I get the crown, it will be easy to win the election,” the politicians thought.
“I’ll become an important person,” others thought.

A large sum of money was collected, and soon he became wealthy. Spending only one percent of the total funds, he made a crown of gold, silver, and gems.

He organized a grand ceremony to crown the greatest person. All the so-called great people thought the crown would go to them. So, no one protested. They all gave big speeches and congratulatory remarks during the event. Finally, the time came to place the crown.

He stood up, showed the crown to everyone, and placed it on his own head. His wife, relatives, and pets clapped. The leaders who wanted to protest looked around at their own followers — but some of those followers had already been bought by him. Seeing his large group of loyal vigilantes, all those who thought themselves great remained silent.

Wearing the crown, he became the most respected and powerful person in society.

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