Once upon a time, in a land far away, there ruled a king. He had two sons named Alexander and Henry. The boys’ mother had passed away so there was an old wise man in the king’s court who was responsible for the two boys’ upbringing.

One day, the elder prince, Alexander, ran to the wise man looking very confused.

“Professor?” he said. “Yesterday, I heard someone in the castle say something like, all that glitters … ummm … something about gold I think?”

The wise man peered at the boy from over his spectacles, smiled and asked, “Do you mean ‘All that glitters is not gold’?”

“Yes, that is it!” the prince’s face lit up. “Yes, the cook was saying it to one of her children!” He paused for a while and then asked, “So what does it mean, professor?”

“Follow me, son,” the wise man said and took the young princes to the king’s apple orchard.

The three of them came to a tree which bore many apples. The man looked up at two of them which had formed close together. The princes followed his gaze and saw the apples: one was large and looked juicy, the other was small and ugly.

“Now, which one of you wants the bigger apple?” the wise man asked.

“I do!” both the boys said simultaneously.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, professor!” said Harry, but Alexander remained silent. The wise man asked a gardener, who was working close by, to fetch him the two apples. When he got them, the professor cut them open with a pocket knife and the princes gasped. The larger apple was rotten from inside whereas the smaller one was succulent.

“All that glitters is not gold!” exclaimed Prince Alexander. “Now I understand! A thing may not be the same on the inside as it seems on the outside!”

“Yes, my boy,” the old, wise man said with a smile. “Now you understand that appearance can be false.” He gave one halves of the juicy apple to each prince and the three of them headed back to the castle, hand in hand.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 6th, 2018