Once upon a time there was a knight named Malchance. Being newly knighted, he had set out with his steed, Loyal, to find great deeds to do. Loyal was not an ordinary horse, he had the gift of speech. Having no idea where they were going, the two heroes traveled aimlessly, hoping to come upon a damsel in distress, or something like that. Malchance was just about to remark on this when a gang of thieves ran out into the road and surrounded them. That was just his luck.
"I can handle this." muttered Malchance to Loyal.
"Hand over your coins or pay the price!" sneered the man whom Malchance took to be the leader.
"Why don't you just say one or the other?" asked Malchance. The leader was caught off guard,
"I don't see what you mean."
"It's quite simple, really," replied Malchance. "You said 'Hand over your coins or pay the price'. Handing over my coins will be paying you, and if I pay the price you'll probably take my coins anyway. So why say both?" The leader pondered this for a moment.
"I never thought of it that way," he paused, "If you help me you can go free." Malchance agreed.
"Why not try 'Hand over your coins or else'? That could imply almost anything, and would leave victims to ponder their fate."
The thieves murmured amongst themselves in approval.
"Or," said Malchance, "you could accept gold coins from me, go to King Arthur, and ask to be of service." The leader shrugged,
"How may coins do we get?"
In the end, Malchance gave them ten gold marks, which was a sizable amount of money then. Malchance and Loyal soon left the bandits behind.
"I can't believe you actually thought of that," Loyal remarked. Malchance smiled happily. Coming over the ridge of a hill they saw a burning village.
"What happened here?" asked Malchance.
"I don't know," replied Loyal, "Let's find out.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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