No Free Lunch Story

A king called his advisers and asked them to write down the wisdom of the ages so that he could pass it on to future generations. After a lot of work, the advisers came up with several volumes of wisdom and presented them to the king. The king called his advisers and said that it was too long and that people would not read it. The king told his advisers they would have to condense it. The advisers went back to work and came back with one volume. The king said it was still too long so they came back again with one chapter; again it was too long. Even one page was too long, said the king.

Finally, the advisers brought back one sentence that satisfied the king. He said that if there was one piece of wisdom that he wanted to pass on to future generations, it would be: "There is no free lunch."