8
A minister proposes a ‘sleeping bull tax.’ Tenali blindfolds a bull and lets appetite choose leadership.
He spun a placid bull thrice in the hall. Two chairs waited: one piled with hay, the other with scrolls. The bull sniffed, chose hay without debate, and munched like a verdict.
“Choose the minister who understands appetite,” Tenali said. “Hay first, then paperwork. The other will feed the kingdom to feed his forms.”
Laughter cracked the chamber. The emperor shelved the tax, then the minister.
Tenali scratched the bull’s forehead. “Policy must eat reality before reality eats policy.”
The bull dined; the tax died. Governance remembered what mouths are for.
