The fairy dilema

Once upon a time, in a small house in the forest there was a fairy called Tinky Winky. She was sparkly and full of joy, she liked to fly with the bees and run with the foxes. She also enjoyed eating some nuts from the walnut tree with the squirrels. Tinky Winky was special

she was the eldest fairy in her village, which meant she faced a daunting future. She would need to pass a number of tests, the first of which involves a ring of fire, an angry goat and three angry trolls. Tinky practiced for years. Would it be enough? She would find out tonight.

After hours of meditation and preparations she was ready. Or looked it, her features steady and fierce, though she hoped none of the others could sense her underlying nervousness. Finally she stood before the panel and a hush came over the crowd. Tink waited for their question.

“After decades of robust harvests, why do we now go hungry?” inquirer the senior-most panel official. Tink, a ruddy farmer leaning confidently on a pitchfork, answered with unnerving confidence, “go to the fields and see for yourself.” The wind outside their tent howled in agony.

“Now don’t be absurd! All of us on the panel are Inside People. The fields are Outside. We can’t go there!” The farmer smirked and barely contained a chuckle. “Maybe that’s why the crop is failing, sir. No one at all goes outside anymore. But the solution is simple:

Donkeys. Millions upon millions of highly trained donkeys with keen vision, strong legs and a fighting spirit! As we now know, donkeys had agriculture long before humans learned it from them. And now we’ve come full circle.” First there was silence. Then, the slow clapping began.