The Sultan and the Crazy Water

An Eastern Tale often retold by the Theologian and Iconographer Photis Kontoglu

THE SULTAN and the CRAZY WATER

Once upon a time there was a Sultan who was good and just. The Sultan had a Vizier (chief adviser)  who was equally good and just. The Vizier also happened to be an astrologer. One day the Vizier told the Sultan that he had seen a sign in the heavens. It was going to rain "fools water", and whosoever drinks of the water will become foolish.

All the people in the land will drink of the fools water and they will become crazy. They will lose their ability to properly reason. They will no longer have a good sense of anything. They will not be able to tell right from wrong, or truth from falsehood, or justice from injustice.

When the Sultan heard this he turned to the Vizier and said, "Since everybody will lose their minds, we must take care not to lose ours, for otherwise how will we