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In a village at the edge of the forest, everyone wore invisible suits of armour made of iron. Whoever wanted to be strong showed no weakness. Only one man did not play along. If you asked him who he was, he grinned: “An idiot and a fool – it even says so on my report card.” Then he laughed, and people quickly walked on.
One day he heard a whimpering in the forest. A wolf cub was stuck in a cleft of thorns. It bit and scratched him as he freed it. He did not take it personally, spoke calmly, and pulled it onto the moss. The old alpha wolf watched from above.
Shortly afterwards, the fool himself got stuck between two tree trunks. He laughed at himself. The wolves came, sniffed at his scratched hands, and realised: wood could not be moved with teeth. So they ran to the edge of the village and howled until the forest workers came. They led them to the clearing.
Later, the villagers went to the zoo. In front of the silverback’s enclosure, they stood stiff and grim. The gorilla pounded against the glass. Then the fool stepped up to the pane, pulled faces, stuck out his tongue, and imitated the mayor. The silverback let his shoulders drop, sat down, and slapped his belly. The two of them played right through the glass.
First a child giggled. Then the baker’s wife burst out laughing. Finally, the mayor laughed at himself. And somewhere there was a quiet clatter, as if something heavy were falling from shoulders.
From then on, the fool had his place in the village. Sometimes he sang too loudly, sometimes he stepped on someone’s toes with a joke. But whenever things became too narrow, too strict, and too normal again, they called for him.
By René Jochum - LLM Translated. License: CC-BY-4.0.