Tale of Two Kings

[comodin]

I read this somewhere (something by Carolyn Baker?). I can't find the original, so I have to re-tell it in my own way:

One king visits another. The host king, wishing to impress his visitor, points to a high tower on the brink of a cliff. "You see that tower?" he says. "Such is my power that at my command, any subject will jump from it, without question."

The visiting king points to a peasant cottage. "You see that cottage? In my kingdom, I can enter any such home, where I will be welcomed as a benefactor. I will be invited to dine and to spend the night. I will sleep peacefully, and without a bodyguard. That is the kind of power I have in my kingdom."

Apart from its assumption that kings are part of life, I thought it brought out something about the point of government.