Once upon a time, there was a very successful magician named Holland. He also had an assistant named Johnny, who helped him with his tricks. Johnny was very careless.

Once, Holland had invited some friends to have dinner with him. When they came, Holland took them to the dining table and they all sat down with him. On the dining table they saw nothing but empty plates. Surprised, they asked him where the food was.

“Just wait, I have to show you something,” Holland replied. He then went to the kitchen and came back after a few minutes. In his hands was a normal-looking kettle.

Johnny was passing by and he started eavesdropping. One of Holland’s friends jokingly said, “Are you gonna make us coffee?” They started laughing at this.

“Just wait,” said Holland and then asked one of his friends what he would like to eat.

The friend said, “A cheese burger.”

Holland said to the kettle, ‘Ingo bingo, the kettle will go.”

The kettle started to speak, “What can I do for you master?”

“Get my friend a cheeseburger,” said Holland.

The kettle started to move weirdly and then opened. Inside it was a hot cheese burger. Holland gave the cheese burger to his friend. They were all surprised. Then he asked his second friend what would he like eat. His friend asked for pepperoni pizza.

The magician said to the kettle “Ingo bingo kettle will go! Get my friend some pepperoni pizza.” The kettle opened again and inside it was a pepperoni pizza.

Then he said to his kettle “Thank you!” and it turned off. They enjoyed their meal and had a good time.

Johnny was surprised to see the kettle’s magic trick. A few days later, Holland told Johnny that he was going out of town for a few days and also told him to never use the kettle in his absence. Soon after the magician left, Johnny got carried away and he called all his friends over for dinner too. He was excited because he thought he would eat lots and lots of delicious food by using the kettle just like the magician did.

At night, his friends came and they all sat down to have dinner. Johnny brought the kettle and said, “Ingo bingo, kettle will go! Get us lots of pizzas and burgers.”

Slowly, food started coming out of the kettle. They ate lots and lots of different types of delicious foods and then Johnny ordered deserts, but forgot to say the code word “Thank you!” to stop the kettle. They kept eating and the food kept coming out of the kettle. At last, they could eat no more.

Johnny said to the kettle, “Please stop getting more food.”

Kettle replied, “Wrong code word.”

It kept getting so much food that it filled the room. Johnny and his friends tried to run away but they kept slipping and falling over the food. Then with great difficulty, his friends left the house.

Johnny kept trying to stop the kettle as almost the whole house was filled with food, but he couldn’t stop it. Then he also tried to run away from the house but when he opened the front door, he saw Holland standing there.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to come back after a few days,” exclaimed Johnny.

“I came back early because I got the message from our neighbours that food was coming out of our house,” Johnny explained and then Holland ran inside and shouted, “Thank you kettle!” and food stopped coming out of it.

Then Holland made Johnny clean up all the food which was covering most of the house, and got really angry with him as he had not listened to the instructions given to him.

Moral: Always listen to your elders and superiors and never do something that they ask you not to.

Published in Dawn, Young World September 2nd, 2017