The fable of the Land of Pap. A tale of charity, giving and paper.

A long time ago in the strange and ancient Land of Pap the most valuable thing in the land was paper. It was coveted by all, and its uses were varied and endless which only added to its desirability.  It was Lord Afour who was regarded as the richest man in the land of Pap as he had so much paper it was said that if it was laid out flat it would cover the entire world 144 times; of course some folk felt such wealth was rather gross (HAH AHHAh ah aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hahaha).

Well one day Lord Afour realised that there was more to life than wealth and so he gave half his paper to this friend Prince Foolscap who had only a small battered notepad.  Prince Foolscap was so pleased he gave half of the paper to his old family solicitor Mr Readas Smallprint and he in turn gave half to Charles Pencilsharpener.

Well so it went on as each recipient of the paper received it they gave half to a friend as a gesture of goodwill and charity.  Eventually of course the amount of paper received reduced substantially until young Miss Quill Pen received just 100 sheets of paper. But she only required 50 to get her through University, so she gave 50 to her Japanese college friend Miss Origami Nodding Swan, who keen to be seen to do her bit gave two sheets of paper to a down and out sleeping in the doorway of the University library (known to his mates as Ringbinder). Of course libraries could not afford real books and they were all kept on hard drives accessed by small electronic devices.

So it was as the sun set Ringbinder the old down and out rolled up the two sheets of paper and went down to the riverside where he saw his pals sleeping under the railway bridge. There were three of them nicknamed, Scrap, Maths and Hardcover and they all looked really pleased as Ringbinder tore the two sheets of paper in half so that each of them could wrap themselves up warm against the wild cold winters wind and rain under the old railway bridge.

As time passed the world moved on, and one by one everyone died and found themselves face to face with their God who asked them about what they had done to help there fellow man.  But strangely although God was pleased that Lord Afour and his friends had given half their wealth to someone else. It appeared that it was not who gave the greatest amount that pleased God the most, but those who had the least to give. When eventually the old down and out known as Ringbinder turned up in front of God and was asked what good deed he had done, he could not remember that he had shared his paper with his mates until God reminded him. Ringbinder you see had never thought is was a good deed, he was just pleased that he and his pals could stay warm, however God was very pleased and gave Ringbinder a new pair of comfy shoes and a big crusty bacon butty. God you see is very wise, which is why it is not a good idea to do terrible things in his name.