The Overwhelmed Scribe

A royal scribe received petitions from across the kingdom.

When war came, petitions tripled. Land disputes, missing soldiers, stolen livestock — all urgent.

The scribe tried to address them all. He fell behind. Petitions piled up. Some waited months. People lost faith in the system.

His replacement made a rule: during crisis, only petitions involving life or death would be heard. Others would wait for peacetime.

Fewer petitions were answered. Those that mattered were answered in time.