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There once was an owner of a great and prosperous chemical factory, Mr. Kingston. There were many men and women who had been with him since the beginning of his company, who all loved him because he was a good man. All of his employees respected him, were loyal to him and worked very hard for Mr. Kingston because he was good to them. He also allowed his employees to buy shares of stock of his company.
Mr. Kingston had a son named Princeton who had been around the factory ever since he was a young boy. The workers were always kind to him and the janitor never complained about having to clean up any messes left by Princeton. As Princeton grew older, he became cruel and saw the workers as nothing but assets to his father’s great company. As he became a man, he knew that he would one day inherit the business that his father had built from the ground up and took liberties in changing “minor” things here and there that overall affected the morale of all of the employees. As Princeton grew in experience and gained more confidence, he punished any employee who crossed his path and even fired some for innocent mistakes they made. This stirred up anger among all of the employees since they were like family. His father never noticed any of these things because he loved and trusted his son, and he was becoming older as time passed.
One day, Princeton went on a walk outside and gained three puppy followers that he was unaware of as he walked around the toxic chemicals. He ignored all of the warning signs, thinking nothing terrible would happen to him for he had grown up walking around the place. As he walked across the creaking metal bridge that all the employees always avoided, they just stood and watched, secretly hoping that he would just fall into some chemicals. As they reached for the door to go back inside, they heard the metal give out but none turned back to check on him.
Luckily for Princeton, he had not fallen into chemicals, but into a large container of thick glue. Though he was not burned from the warm glue, he was having difficulties staying afloat. He was so focused on escaping this glue that was willing to swallow him alive, he never noticed the three little puppies that also fell when the rusted bridge broke, plunging them into the white abyss.
Princeton managed to croak out a gargled “Help!” just in time for the kind janitor to walk by.
The janitor quickly responded, “Hang on! I’m coming to help you!” and scaled the ladder on the side of the large container of glue.
As soon as he reached the top, he saw a large mass that was a man, and three smaller lumps that seemed to be struggling to stay afloat. Being a compassionate man, he reached for the three struggling lumps first to put into the pockets of his jacket, and then reached to pull the man out. Princeton carefully climbed down the ladder to the bottom where the janitor was caring for the small brown puppies. After a few minutes had passed and panic had left his system, Princeton realized that the janitor had only given him a towel and had not bent over backwards cleaning him up, and grew angry. Though the janitor offered to let him use the small shower in the back, in his pride, Princeton declined the offer. Embarrassed and outraged, Princeton thanked him and stormed off back to his house. The janitor then moved the puppies to his custodial closet to give them a nice warm bath.
A few months after this incident, Mr. Kingston fell very ill and could no longer run his growing company and passed it down to Princeton. Neither Princeton nor the janitor had told anybody about this incident because Princeton was too prideful, and the janitor was too humble. The two men had not seen each other since the fall, but Princeton still held a grudge for the janitor saving the puppies first, over himself.
Several months after the transfer of power, the janitor and Princeton ran into each other. The janitor kindly greeted Princeton, inquiring as to how he was doing to which Princeton just turned and walked away. He then went straight to his manager, and ordered him to humiliate and force the janitor to quit. The manager complied.
The manager went to the janitor, knocked him down and yelled at him, trying everything he could do to make him resign from the job. The janitor, however, just took the abuse and began to tell the other employees about how he saved Princeton and the three puppies that now lived with him. The managers also listened in, and checked the cameras and saw that what he said was true.
The employees out of anger and loyalty to the kind janitor all gave their shares of the company stock to him. Though there were other investors, the janitor now owned the largest portion, and legally became the new owner of this large company. He was good to his employees and friends, giving them bonuses and extended leaves of absence. They also worked hard and well for their new boss and friend.
Author's note:
This story is inspired from the short story, "Prince Wicked and the Grateful Animals." In the original story, a prince was so rude to the people and the guards who followed the prince that they plotted ways that they could "accidentally" let their guard down and something would happen to the prince. The prince almost drowned in a river during a storm and the guards were going to allow it to happen. A poor man happened to find the prince along with some animals that were clinging to a log drifting down the river. The poor man saved the animals first and then saved the prince after saving the animals. The prince was angry at this but pretended to thank the poor man. The king eventually passed the throne down to the prince and the prince ordered the poor man to be executed so that no one would find out about how their king was rescued by a poor man. The poor man took the punishment but just before he was executed, the poor man told of how he saved the animals and the prince. The wise men of the town believed the poor man and instead of executing the poor man, they executed the new king and made the poor man king!
In my story, I named the two characters Mr. Kingston and his son, Princeton, but changed their occupation to owners of a company. Also like in the original story where the Prince's guards purposefully left him behind, the employees also left Princeton behind on purpose despite hearing the bridge breaking. For the three puppies that the janitor rescued, I wanted to show how helpless they were compared to Princeton so the janitor really had a good reason for helping them first. I did change their role some in this story by having the puppies just live with the janitor, and not doing anything to help him monetarily like the grateful animals from the original story. For the ending of the story, I did not think it would be realistic for the employees to kill the owner, so I just had him overthrown from power, and had the janitor take up the new open position as owner of the company. In the end, the employees were loyal to the new owner because he was good, just as they were to Mr. Kingston in the beginning of my story and like people were to the king in the original story.
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