You've heard the story of Scheherazade? A harem girl had to tell a different story every night or she would be beheaded. When I was 5, my mother told me the Russian version. A cook had to make a different meal every night for the King. When he ran out of recipes, and knew he couldn't fake it, he escaped. Walking down the road he realized he would be caught eventually and executed. Spotting a discarded old leather boot laying on the side of the road, he decided he would have the last laugh on the old king. To the cook's surprise, the crazy old king loved the baked old boot, covered in giblets and gravy. And dropped his requirement for something different every night. The moral of the story is never give up because you never know how things can turn out.

I was listening to 'The Carpenter' by Nightwish when I remembered this story.