Once upon a time, a great King had a precious sword. One day, the King of a neighbouring country declared war on him. The sword had never participated in a real battle and so was excited. It wanted to show how brave and special it was and become famous. When they arrived at the battlefield, the sword saw the result of the first battle. There were broken weapons and many injured soldiers lay scattered on the ground. It was totally different from what the sword had imagined.
The sword realised that it did not like battles. It wanted to live in peace and participate only in competitions. So, on the night before the battle, the sword started vibrating. First, it gave out a low buzz, but gradually it got louder. Finally, it became an irritating metallic noise.
The swords and armours of the other soldiers woke up and asked the King’s sword what it was doing. It said that it did not want to participate in the battle. Even the other swords and armours did not want to battle. So, the King’s sword asked everyone to vibrate so that no one might sleep. The weapons started vibrating and the noise reached the enemy camp and the weapons there also joined the protest.
So, the next morning, at the time of the battle, not even a single soldier was ready to fight. No one had slept even for a moment due to the deafening sound of the swords and the armours. So, they kept sleeping throughout the day. In the evening, they started waking up, and decided to put off the battle for the next day. The next day also, the weapons made the noise and again no soldier could sleep. The battle was again postponed, and this carried on for the whole week.
On the eighth day, the Kings of the two armies met to find a solution to the problem. Though they were angry with each other, they discussed their sleepless nights, the tension on the faces of the soldiers and the confusion of day with night.
The situation appeared to be amusing. Both the Kings laughed like friends, at these little stories. Luckily, they forgot their old enmity and put an end to the war. Both the Kings returned to their kingdoms with the joy of not having had to fight, and having regained friendship. From then on, the Kings frequently met and talked about their kingdoms and discuss the problems. Then they realised that the talks which united them were many as compared to those that set them apart from each other.
