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Storyteller




Once upon a time there was a storyteller, who used to go to village to village, to tell his stories. Kids loved him, as he would tell them stories of fairies and pirates, and witches and wizards. He used to take them to worlds they dream about.


On his journey, once arrived at a small town, and as usual kids surrounded him, but with those kids there was a young lady. The storyteller got little confused, cause he wasn't used to adults as audience.


After the session ended, the lady came to visit him. And told him that his stories were great. He smiled, and told her that he was surprised to see an adult in his session. And asked her, what brought her to these stories.



She told him, that she was always amused by the stories. And more than that, she was curious how these stories got created.



And that's what she asked him next, "How do these stories come to your mind?, Do they just appear in your head or you observe them anywhere?"



"Do you really want to know?", He asked.

She nodded a yes with a wide grin.



"Listen carefully, what I'm gonna tell you is a super secret", he continued,

"All the storytellers have a special notebook, in which we start writing. We start a story line, we create characters, and the notebook creates the rest of the story itself"



"You gotta be kidding, how's that possible?",She asked.


"I told you, it's a secret", he said. And he waved good bye.


That night, the lady could not stop thinking about what the storyteller said. The idea of existence of such a magical thing made her more curious. So she decided to find out more about the notebook, with an agenda in her head.


Next day, she met the storyteller again. And apologized for doubting him. He just smiled. And then she said the real intention behind meeting him, "I'm really interested in being a storyteller myself. And with a tool like that, I'll be able to persuade this dream"


The storyteller thought about a moment, and agreed. He gave her a copy of the notebook, and soon left the town.
The best part of any story is that it always has a deeper meaning to it, and a sense of completion, at the end. And the young lady knew that. And that's the idea she had, she wanted her life just like a story.


And that's what she did. Just like the storyteller told, she started writing a story about herself. She created a story line which had details of her life, since her childhood. She mentioned each and every incident happened with her, without leaving out any minor detail. A person reading this story would know all about her life. And she kept writing till her meeting with storyteller, and she receiving the notebook.


Now all she had to do was to wait, cause the book would continue the story, and she would just follow it.


And that's what started to happen, she followed every step that got mentioned in the magically generated pages, and the results were as expected and as mentioned in the book itself. She felt like she was in total control of her life, cause actions and results were already known to her.


Things were really going smooth, until one day, the new page in the story said, that the young lady would lose the notebook in a theft. Now this part of story made our young lady very anxious, cause she was now too much into the notebook. She could not afford to lose the control.


But if she stopped the theft, the story of the book and her life would part ways, and if she let it happen then she wouldn't be able to to see what happens next, as the book would not be with her.
"What would she do?", asked Betal to king Vikramaditya.
"By the way, you know the drill, I'm tired of repeating", Betal laughed, "So just answer if you know, I don't want you to die my friend"


A smiling Vikramaditya said, "Don't worry about me, you won't get rid of me so soon. And I hope someday you will give me a puzzle, which is truly impossible to solve"
"Now, about the trouble this lady has, the best option for her is to let the book be stolen, it's the right choice."
"Reasons?", Betal again.
"It's simple, rather logical. If she keeps the book, then the story would part ways from her life. And it's quite possible that the story would become more interesting, and sad part would be she'll able to read it but never be able to live it. And that will keep on hurting her until her death, a nightmare about what life could have been if she'd simply let the book to be stolen."


"But that's not even the context of the story. The context is that how ever hard you try to keep things planned and controlled, they will get out of hands at one point or another. You can't get everything the way you see or expect, and that's what her mistake was. And that's why she'll let the robbery to happen, in a hope that, somewhere down the line her story will have stronger meaning with a proper conclusion"
"Again, you are right my king. Man I'm really getting bored of this routine, I wish our story will have a good conclusion too" , and Betal left, roaming towards his tree.

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