Who Will Tell the Tale?

The bored king, wondering what he can do to amuse himself, calls for an advisor. He proposes to announce a contest of tall tales, and before that he promises that if the tsar responds to someone’s story by saying “Not true” or “I do not believe”, the storyteller will be rewarded with half a kingdom; anyone who the tsar “believes” - and according to the adviser, in any case - will have to give the tsar all his possessions. The king announces a contest, after which the 300 contestants, having been caught, part with the last one.

But one day three brothers come to the king. The eldest and the middle one try to disbelieve the Tsar by telling outlandish tales, but he indifferently replies “I do”. When it is the youngest brother’s turn to tell stories, he declares that he has no time to tell tall tales and that he has come on behalf of his village, from which the Tsar has borrowed a sack of gold. The man exclaims in horror: “It is not true!” then, realizing what he has done, corrects himself: “I mean, it’s true!” Then the boy pulls out a huge sack and says, “And if it’s true - pay back the debt! We’ve got houses to build before winter, and we’ve got to buy a cow for everyone!” The king exclaims: “So my whole kingdom will fit in a sack like that?”, to which the boy replies, “All of it? No. Not all of it, only half of it. Or don’t you believe me?”

This logical paradox leads the inhabitants of the palace into utter confusion: the king faints, the counselor cries and walks away with the column he grabbed, the guards drop their weapons. In the final scene of the cartoon, the villagers carry out of the palace a long sack with “Half a Kingdom” written on it.