A Gift for the king
Summarized by Rebecca Cann
Retold and Illustrated by Christopher Mason
Retold and Illustrated by Christopher Mason
This story was first written by the third-century Roman writer Aelian, and it has been based on the book of the same name by Christopher Mason published in 1989. You can purchase it from amazon.com.

Long time ago there was a king in Persia whose name was Artaxerxes* who was very rich and ruled over a huge empire. He had hundreds of servants and lived in a large, wonderful palace full of beautiful things.
One day, King Artaxerxes decided to walk out of his palace and explore the countryside. His many servants were surprised to see the king walking and ran after him wondering where the king was going.
Outside the palace, the king met two merchants who presented him with a bottle of a rare perfume
and some incense from afar away place. But the king was not impressed. He told his servants to keep the perfumes and later put them with the rest of his perfumes in the palace.
One day, King Artaxerxes decided to walk out of his palace and explore the countryside. His many servants were surprised to see the king walking and ran after him wondering where the king was going.
Outside the palace, the king met two merchants who presented him with a bottle of a rare perfume
and some incense from afar away place. But the king was not impressed. He told his servants to keep the perfumes and later put them with the rest of his perfumes in the palace.
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As he was walking down a hill, the king met a group of his soldiers who had just returned from a war.
The soldiers gave the king a golden quiver full of golden arrows. But the king was not impressed with this gift either as he owned many golden quivers already. The king kept walking and walking until he met some ambassadors from a neighboring country who offered him wonderful presents of gold and silver vases, precious rugs and colorful jewels. But the king had seen many gifts before and the gifts did not excite him at all. The king continued his long walk until he felt really thirsty. He said, “I have never walked this far and I feel really thirsty. I need some cool water.” The servants frantically looked through all the gifts, but they couldn’t find any water. The King was getting very annoyed and screamed, “I am very thirsty. WHERE IS MY DRINK?” Just then a poor shepherd boy appeared and said, “O great King! I am just a poor shepherd and do not have any gifts for you, but I can give you this old jar.”
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