A Modern Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there lived a man who believed that his king was the only one who could rule a vast and wealthy kingdom. Sadly for this man (whom we shall call Tobin) the country wasn't actually a kingdom but a republic. Even more sadly, Tobin's king had to fight an election against a rival candidate. Tobin was unhappy about this, but not so unhappy that he couldn't act.

He decided to interfere with the evil rival's election campaign by jamming the telephone lines of the rival's get-out-the-vote center. This worked very well, or so Tobin thought. His king was recrowned and all was well. Except for one thing. Some not-so-nice people investigated Tobin's jamming adventure and he was caught. Stupid laws of the country! They made Tobin's heroism a crime!

Poor, poor Tobin. At least the king's courtiers agreed to pay his legal costs. What a self-sacrificing man Tobin was! Our hearts are touched by such bravery.

What happened next? Well, some nosey interfering folk found out that Tobin had talked to the king's nearest and dearest a lot. In fact, he talked to them two dozen times while he was jamming the rival's phones. Sweet. But now those nasty snoopers want to know what all this talk discussed. How dare they! Can't a man talk to his king's courtiers as much as he wants to?

Poor, poor Tobin. And we don't even know the end to this fairy tale. That's the way modern tales work.