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Once upon a time lived a king who was very rich and had hundreds of servants. Because the servants did all the work the king had nothing to do. Naturally, he became bored sitting on his extravagant throne day after day listening to the tales the storytellers had to tell. As the years rolled by, the storytellers found it increasingly difficult to invent new stories. This made the king very mad so he decided to offer a prize to anyone who could tell a story that would last forever. If the story lasted forever the winner would receive a vast fortune and could marry his daughter. This prize tempted many young men but what if they failed. The king had gone on to say that anyone whose story does not last forever will lose his head! Very few people tried and those that did never managed to make their stories last more than a few weeks. When the storytellers could go on no longer, the king waved his hand and that was the end of another young man. One day a stranger came to the palace. He told the king that he had a wonderful story about locusts. Everybody in those lands knew about locusts. They sometimes came in swarms from the hills and ate all the crops. The king thought that a story about locusts might be worth listening to. The stranger began his story, "Once upon a time...."

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