The Mysterious Juggling Clown

Once upon a time, a juggling clown came to a village. The clown went from town to town, earning a little money from his show. In that village he began his act in the square. While everyone was enjoying the show, a naughty boy started to make fun of the clown, telling him to leave the village. The shouts and insults made the clown nervous, and he dropped one of his juggling balls. Some others in the crowd started booing because of this mistake, and in the end the clown had to leave quickly.

He ran off, leaving four of the juggling balls. But neither the clown nor his juggling balls were in any way ordinary. During that night, each one of the balls magically turned into a naughty boy, just like the one who had shouted the insults. All except one ball, which turned into another clown. For the whole of the next day, the copies of the naughty boy walked round the village, making trouble for everyone. In the afternoon, the copy of the clown started his juggling show, and the same thing happened as the previous day. But, this time, there were four naughty boys shouting, instead of one. Again, the clown had to run off, leaving another four balls behind.

Once more, during the night, three of those balls turned into copies of the naughty boy, and one turned into a clown. And so the same story repeated itself for several days, until the village was filled with naughty boys who would leave no one in peace. The village elders decided to put an end to all this. They made sure that none of the naughty boys would disrespect or insult anyone. When the clown's show began, the elders prevented the boys even making a squeak. So the clown managed to finish his show, and could spend that night in the village.

That night, three of the copies of the naughty boy disappeared, and the same happened until only the clown and the original naughty boy remained.

The boy, and everyone in the village, had been shown just how far they could go. From then on, instead of running visitors away, that village made every effort to make sure that visitors would spend a nice day there. The villagers had discovered just how much a humble travelling clown can teach with his show.