The royal decree that made everyone laugh
What is the Royal Decree on Plain Speech?
Plain speech in royal decrees means writing that anyone can follow without a solicitor. Definitions stay near the verbs they modify, and obligations use the same nouns the tax collectors already know.
The approach spread after the Great Confusion of the Western Provinces, where a lengthy chicken-tax edict sent farmers to the palace with live birds for three straight evenings.
Clerks now pair each decree with a short FAQ so towns can print the summary on market posts. That feedback loop cut repeat questions to the chancellery by more than half during the pilot year.
Product teams borrowed the same pattern for in-app notices: headline, two concrete steps, then a link to the long-form statute for readers who need precedent.
How Taxes Work and Why They Matter
The king thought long and hard, and finally came up with a brilliant plan: he would tax the jokes in the kingdom.
“After all,” he said, “everyone enjoys a good joke, so it's only fair that they should pay for the privilege.”
The king's subjects were not amused. They grumbled and complained, but the king was firm
Royal Decree!
The Great People's Rebellion
The people of the kingdom, feeling uplifted by the laughter, started to tell jokes and puns again, and soon the entire kingdom was in on the joke.
| King's Treasury | People's happiness |
|---|---|
| Empty | Overflowing |
| Modest | Satisfied |
| Full | Ecstatic |
The king, seeing how much happier his subjects were, realized the error of his ways and repealed the joke tax. Jokester was declared a hero, and the kingdom lived happily ever after.
The King's Plan
The king thought long and hard, and finally came up with a brilliant plan: he would tax the jokes in the kingdom.
“After all,” he said, “everyone enjoys a good joke, so it's only fair that they should pay for the privilege.”
The king's subjects were not amused. They grumbled and complained, but the king was firm. Accountants circulated a tiered fee card covering puns, standard jokes, and one-liners so the treasury could track nightly intake.
As a result, people stopped telling jokes, and the kingdom fell into a gloom. But there was one person who refused to let the king's foolishness get him down: a court jester named Jokester.