Thread by @Joannechocolat

Given our recent conversations about copyright theft, here's a little #Storytime to start off the weekend...

For new followers, #Storytime: in which I live-tweet a story from scratch, for anyone who feels like following it. And it always starts like this:

There is a story the bees used to tell, which makes it hard to disbelieve. #Storytime

An innkeeper resented the prices charged by a wine-merchant for his wine.
#Storytime

“Wine should be for everyone,” he said, “not just the wealthy.”
The vintner simply shrugged at this, and said: “And yet, this is my price.”
#Storytime

“Wine is nothing but crushed fruit,” went on the resentful innkeeper. “In summer, fruit is plentiful. People gather it for free. How can anyone charge so much for a handful of berries from a hedge?”#Storytime

The vintner shrugged at this too and said: “Nevertheless, the price still stands.”
#Storytime

The innkeeper, growing impatient, said: “Any fool can make wine. All they need is fruit, and time. Sitting around doing nothing while fruit juice turns to alcohol doesn’t really count as work. Why does it deserve payment?”
#Storytime

But the innkeeper continued to be impervious to his arguments. “There are overheads,” he said. “Transport and storage, not to mention the fees paid to the growers and distributors, who would go out of business if they were to charge anything less.” #Storytime

And so one day the innkeeper concocted a plan to steal the wine for himself.
With the help of a local bandit chief, he stole a whole consignment of wine, and served his share of the stolen goods to his customers free of charge.
#Storytime

People came from miles around to drink free wine at his hostelry. Word of the inn where wine was free spread across the country, so that for a time the innkeeper was the most popular man in the land. #Storytime

No-one bought wine from the vintner, who quietly went out of business.
“Serve him right!” said the innkeeper.
“Serve him right!” said the customers. #Storytime

But the vintner was not the only one whose livelihood had been affected. The distributor; the carters; the workers in the bottling plant; the farmer who owned the vineyard; the people who worked to pick the grapes; the people who cared for the young vines – #Storytime

The sudden lack of demand for wine put them all out of business, too.
#Storytime

Many of the cast-off labourers turned out to be his customers, and little by little, the innkeeper found himself growing rather less popular.
#Storytime

At last, the stolen wine ran out. The innkeeper went to his bandit friend to negotiate another deal. But now that the vineyards were closed, the bandits had moved on to more lucrative business. #Storytime

No-one was making wine any more. And yet the demand for it had increased. #Storytime

And so the innkeeper, seeing his chance, and finding his profits dwindling due the the amount of free wine he had served, decided to make wine himself. “How hard can it be?” he said. “All I need is fruit, and time, and labour.” #Storytime

And so he took over the abandoned vineyards, and set to making wine himself. It was hard work, and required a great deal more investment of funds than he had hoped.#Storytime

“Still, it will be worth it,” he said. “If I charge even half what the vintner charged, I can cover my losses.”#Storytime

But when the wine was ready to drink, and the innkeeper told his customers, they seemed surprised when he mentioned the price. “You mean, you actually charge for wine?” they said. “You never did before.” #Storytime

The innkeeper tried to explain about the hard work, and investment, and the many, many other things that went into the making of wine. #Storytime

“But wine is just fruit,” said his customers. “It should be free for everyone.”
#Storytime

And besides, now that they had all lost their jobs at the vineyards and the bottling plant, no-one had any money to spend on wine anyway.
#Storytime
the end