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In the kingdom of fools is a Kannada folktale from A.K. Ramanujan’s Folk Tales from India. It is about a kingdom which was run by the foolish king. One day upon seeing that the people of the kingdom worked in the night and slept in the day, the saint and his disciple were astonished. The disciple being lured by the abundance of cheap food he refuses to leave the place with the saint. Saint finds it foolish to stay in that place.

One day while seeking justice, a man approached the king. The man stated that the wall of man's house fell upon his brother while they were committing his ancient trade of theft and he died. The king being foolish thinks for compensation for the criminal. Instead of analyzing properly he tried upon everyone - The man who built the wall, the owner of the house- Rich merchant, because of which the builder built the weak wall- a Dancing girl and lastly the goldsmith because of whom in the street the dancing girl was roaming.  Upon much thinking, the king decided the real culprit to be the merchant's father who is already dead. Now that the father is dead since the son inherited the property the king decided to punish the son. To be killed by the stake, the merchant thought that the merchant was too thin. Therefore, the king in foolishness asks his men to fin in place of the merchant a fat man. Therefore, the disciple who grows fat is taken to the king and the disciple pray to his guru. Guru upon visualizing the pray of disciple appears and traps the foolish king through his wisdom and intelligence. Finally, instead of the guru and the disciple being killed the king and his minister are killed by the stake. Therefore, the people of the kingdom pleases the guru to be their king and that king accepts in a condition that the kingdom would function normally like the other kingdoms.