The wizard’s shoes

Rachna Chhabria narrates the tale of how a young boy took down a cruel king.

Dello was the wizard of Carrka Land. He was a cruel man who ruled over his subjects harshly, making them pay fines for not obeying his rules. He also made them donate a percentage of their earnings to his royal treasury. The people of Carrka Land suffered silently because if anyone ever opened their mouth, they were thrown into a dungeon.

Dello had a pair of intricately carved brown shoes, handmade by a powerful elf. The magical shoes were in his family for generations, passed down from father to son. Dello was both proud and possessive of his shoes, as they possessed special powers.

At night, the shoes roamed all over Carrka Land, spying on people and listening to private conversations. They would report back to Dello about what happened in his land when he was snoozing — the snitching would land many in trouble!

Those found talking against Dello would be dragged out of their houses by the guards and beaten black and blue and be made an example of.

Over a period of time, the people of the land had made a family member keep an eye out for the shoes at night. If the shoes were outside their door, then they would deliberately say nice things about the wizard to stay in his good books. But they were growing tired of the cruel wizard’s antics.

One day, the tired public decided to do something about the spying and the sneaky shoes. They held a secret meeting inside a cave, far away from Dello’s guards.

“We need to have a system in place that will warn us whenever the shoes are outside our doors and windows at night,” said Roy, the wisest man in the land.

“There is nothing we can do,” said Rebbello, the local village baker.

“I usually post a family member near my window to keep a watch. We take turns,” said Tara, the tailor.

“I have an idea!” exclaimed a small boy named Joy.

Everyone stared in surprise at the boy. He was the youngest in the crowd. He had accompanied his father.

“Be quiet,” said his father. “Let the elders talk.”

“Don’t silence him,” said Roy. “Sometimes the wisest ideas come from the youngest minds. Let’s hear what he has to say.”

Everyone turned to Joy.

“There is a Funga Funga tree near the lake. Its fruit has a dirty smell that takes years to fade away,” Joy said.

So what?” asked an old lady, Carima.

“We can spill the juice of the fruit onto the wizard’s shoes one night. The wizard won’t be able to rid the shoes of the stinky smell. After that we can breathe easy, as the nasty smell will act as a warning when the shoes are nearby,” said Joy.

“But how will we spill the juice of that fruit on the shoes?” Donny, the doctor, asked.

“Leave that to me,” said Joy.

The next day Joy visited the lake and plucked a basket full of green fruit from the Funga Funga tree. He then donned a pair of gloves and extracted the juice. Pouring the juice into small bottles, he tied the bottles to the windows of all the houses with a rope. This way, when the shoes approached a window at night and pulled it open, the juice would spill over it.

That night, the residents of Carrka Land waited with bated breath for the shoes to start snooping. As luck would have it, the wizard’s shoes approached Joy’s house. As the shoes tried to open the window, the small bottle of juice spilt over it, drenching the pair in green goo.

The shoes scurried away and plunged themselves into the lake. But sadly, no amount of water could get rid of the smell or the green stains.

The wizard tried a lot of magic tricks to get rid of the smell from his shoes, but nothing worked. Many months passed and over time the wizard monarch grew old and sick. He appointed his son as the new king — a kind man who loved his subjects and took good care of them.

The residents of Carrka Land were overjoyed, as no one feared the shoes anymore and rewarded Joy for his bright idea.