One day, a ruler was sitting in his palace when he heard an apple seller calling out outside the palace: "Buy apples! Apples!" The ruler looked outside and saw a villager going to the market with apples loaded on his donkey. The ruler desired an apple and said to his minister (Wazir): "Take 5 gold coins from the treasury and bring me an apple." The minister took out 5 gold coins from the treasury and said to his assistant: "Take these 4 gold coins and bring an apple." The assistant minister called the palace manager and said: "Take these 3 gold coins and bring an apple." The palace manager called the palace security manager and said: "Take these 2 gold coins and bring an apple." The security manager called the gate soldier and said: "Take this 1 gold coin and bring an apple." The soldier went after the apple seller, grabbed him by the collar, and said: "You villager! Why are you making so much noise? Don't you know this is the palace of the kingdom's king, and you have disturbed the king's sleep with your terrifying voice? Now I have been ordered to imprison you." The apple seller fell at the feet of the palace soldiers and said: "I have made a mistake, sir! The load on this donkey is the result of one year of my hard work. Take all of this, but spare me from being imprisoned!" The soldier took all the apples, kept half for himself, and gave the rest to his manager. And the manager kept half of those and gave the other half to the upper manager, saying that these are the apples worth 1 gold coin. The officer gave half of those apples to the palace manager and said that the price of these apples is 2 gold coins. The palace manager kept half of the apples for himself, gave the other half to the minister, and said that the price of these apples is 3 gold coins. The minister took half of the apples, went to the Chief Minister, and said that the price of these apples is 4 gold coins. The minister kept half of the apples for himself, and in this way, went to the ruler with only five apples and said: "These are 5 apples worth 5 gold coins." The ruler thought to himself that during his reign, the people are truly rich and prosperous; a farmer sold five apples for five gold coins—one apple for each gold coin! "The people of my country buy an apple for one gold coin, which means they are rich. Therefore, it is better to increase the taxes and fill the palace treasury." And then, in this way, poverty among the public kept increasing, increasing, and increasing. (Adapted from Persian Literature)
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