The Beggar King

Once upon a time, some wealthy looking men stopped infront of a beggar who was begging upon the street and told him that they wanted to make him the king of their land.
Then they took him home with them, across the sea to their country and, after the man had had a bath and a shave, they gave him fine clothes to wear with a golden crown for his head, prepared a lavish feast for him to eat and told him that he was now king of their land and absolute power to do whatever he wanted.
And so the beggar, because he was a good and fair man decided to use his power to make good changes in the country.
For one thing, he discovered that only the poor of the country were taxed and so he changed that, instructing his tax collectors to tax the rich merchants and noblemen and he created a free health care and education system for the poor that would be paid for by the taxes that came from the rich and he built orphanages for orphaned children and houses for the homeless.
While he was visiting one of the homes of the poor people of his kingdom, however, to inspect the living conditions of a family, the mother of the family said,
"I cannot bear it any longer. I have to tell him".
"No", her husband cautioned her, "You know what will happen to us if they find out we've told him".
"But he's a genuinely good man", replied the woman, "Better than all the others. He doesn't deserve it".
And so, her husband relenting, the woman told the king,
"The people who made you king, your majesty, intend to kill you once a fortnight is over".
"Kill me? Why?", asked the king.
"As a sacrifice to the monster who lives under the palace", said the woman, "They've done it to many men before you but we never said anything to them because they were all tyrants and not kind like you".
Then the woman told the beggar how it had all started; that long ago they had had a good king but that the king had discovered a magical amulet that gave him god like powers.
Unfortunately, every time the king would use his power, the amulet would take a piece of his humanity as payment until, finally, the king had turned into an evil monster,
"But the rich people and the nobility still serve the monster because his power preserves their own. Thats why they bring it human sacrifices".
Frightened by what he had heard, the king wondered what he should do?
"Perhaps I can run away?", he thought.
But the people of the kingdom needed him for if he did nothing the evil tradition of the wealthy and powerful sacrificing men to the beast to support their own callous rule would go on.
And so he decided, instead, to face the beast and, returning to the palace, he ordered everyone out of his throne room and then he moved his throne aside and lifted up the stone beneath it, revealing a spiral staircase that led down into the monsters lair.
Then, taking a flaming torch from off of a wall, he went down into the darkness.
And as he descended the staircase he started to hear the sound of a giant monster breathing and a giant heart pounding like a drum and the breathing and pounding became louder and louder until, finally, reaching the bottom stair, he saw the creature.
Like a giant toad it was, except that it had razor sharp teeth and three ginormous red eyes; long sharp claws instead of webbed feet and hands and a tall horn upon its nose.
Then, seeing him, the monster let out a roaring croak and fire belched from its enormous mouth.
The king was terrified but he drew his sword and stood firm.
"Someone has to stand up and face the beast for this madness to end", he thought.
But then the monster started to come towards him and the king wondered if he had made a reckless mistake.
Just then however, he noticed something around the monsters bulbous throat that was reflecting the light of his blazing torch and glinting and, seeing that, he remembered what the poor woman had told him earlier about the talisman that had turned the original king into a monster.
And so, swiping with the blade of his sword, he sliced through the rope that held the talisman so that it fell from around the monsters neck.
And, no sooner had he done this when the monster stopped roaring and then suddenly he noticed a look in its eyes like realization dawning upon it.
Then to his surprise, he saw tears start to fall from its bulbous eyes and with each tear that splashed upon the ground the beast seemed to change a little until, eventually, it was not a monster anymore but a man.
"What happened to me?", said the man, sounding and looking bewildered, "What did I become?".
"You must be the original king of this land", said the king taking off his crown and placing it upon the mans head, "This belongs to you".
"No", said the man, taking it off and handing it back to him, "I don't want it. You keep it. Wealth and power only make men mad".
So then the king led the man back up the spiral staircase and into the world above and the man, renouncing his title, gave it to the beggar; the magic talisman of power was buried and a statue of love and generosity built upon it.
Then the king used his power to make a better, fairer and kinder kingdom in which the rich were taxed to provide for the poor and though the wealthy and powerful plotted against him, he used the support of his people to keep them under control and the ordinary people of his kingdom never forgot the legend of the beggar king.