Once upon a time, a beautiful princess sat at the edge of a clear, ornate pool in her palace grounds. As she leaned over to gaze at her reflection, her priceless crown tumbled from her head and into the water with a loud splash.
At the sound of her scream, royal attendants rushed to her from all sides. Frantically, they jumped one after the other into the pool, thrashing about in search of the precious object.
Of course, all this effort did nothing but churn the water and stir up a lot of mud and debris from the bottom of the pool. The water grew murky. The crown disappeared from view. The princess and her attendants panicked.
Now, who should come upon this chaotic scene but the palace storyteller, a bent and bowed old man with twinkling eyes.
With one glance, he took in the chaos. Rather than join the maelstrom, he sat calmly down at the princess’s side and immediately launched into a riveting tale of times gone by.
His sonorous voice wove such a fascinating tapestry of love and adventure that the aides climbed out of the pool to sit down nearby and listen raptly. And the princess herself stopped shrieking, forgetting all about her lost crown.
By the time the storyteller came to the end of his elaborate, embellished tale, everyone and everything – even the mud in the pool – had settled down.
And so, the storyteller reached into the pool, once again still and clear, and easily plucked out the now plainly visible crown.