Once upon a time, and in a country long way off, there is a king who is very ill. All the doctors from the court attend him but, in spite of all they can do, he gets worse, instead of better. In despair they call in a famous doctor from another country. He comes, looks at the king and says, "There is only one thing that can help you".
"What is that?", says the King.
"You must sleep for one night, says the doctor "in the shirt of a happy man!"
So the king sends two of his chief servants to find a happy man and, when they find him, to bring back his shirt.
Well, they go first to the richest man in the city, and ask him if he is a happy man.
How I can be happy when I never know whether my ships wreck, when thieves always try to break in my house.
So they go to the King's Chief Minister, the most powerful man in the country, except for the King. "Are you a happy man?" they say. "Don't be silly" he says. "There's Ruritania threatening to make war on us any day. The workers always want to have more money, and the wealthy want to pay less taxes. How do you think a Chief Minister can be a happy man?"
So they go all over the country looking high and low for a happy man but never finding one.
They return home, tired and miserable, when they see a beggar sitting by the roadside. He makes a little fire and sings merrily as he
watches his supper cooking.
They look at each other. Do they find what they look for? They go up to him and one of them says, "You sound very happy, my friend".
"Of course, I am happy", he says. They can hardly believe their ears. With one voice they say, "We want your shirt!".
The beggar roars with laughter. "I'm sorry, gentlemen", he says "but I haven't.
