A man went to knock as the king's door and said,
Give me a boat. The king's house had many
other doors, but this was the door for petitions. Since the
king spent all his time sitting at the door for favours
(favours being offered to the king, you understand),
whenever he heard someone knocking at the door for
petitions, he would pretend not to hear, and only when
the continuous pounding of the bronze doorknocker
became not just deafening, but positively scandalous,
disturbing the peace of the neighbourhood (people
would start muttering, What kind of king is he if
he won't even answer the door), only then would
he order the first secretary to go and find out what
the supplicant wanted, since there seemed no way of
silencing him. Then, the first secretary would call the
second secretary, who would call the third secretary,
who would give orders to the first a**istant who would,
in turn, give orders to the first a**istant who would,
in turn, give orders to the second a**istant and so on
all the way down the line to the cleaning woman, who,
having no one else to give orders to, would half-
open the door and ask through the crack, What do you
want. The supplicant would state his business, that is,
he would ask what he had come to ask, then he would
wait by the door for his request to trace the path back,
person by person, to the king. The king, occupied as
usual with the favours being offered him, would take a
long time to reply, and it was no small measure of his
concern for the happiness and well-being of his people
that he would, finally resolve to ask the first secretary
for an authoritative opinion in writing, the first secretary,
needless to say, would pa** on the command to the
second secretary, who would pa** it to the third secretary,
and so on down once again to the cleaning woman, who
would give a yes or a no depending on what kind of
mood she was in.