The Slight Differences in Ink Pigment Deposits

Once there was a Emperor who had nations and cities and kingdoms at his gift.

He had the custom of calling in his high servants and ranking subjects to a special room in his palace.  In that room was a glossy wood cabinet with two drawers side by side.   Each drawer was identical in all respects. He would then open each drawer and show the trembling subject the contents.  In each drawer was a parchment decree of one page only, with the same headings and formulas, with the same imperial signature at the bottom, and with the name of the person in the same place in the same way on each.  The only difference was this.  On the one decree, it said that His servant or subject thus and so was to be killed.  On the other it said that His servant or subject thus and so was to be crowned.  Killed or crowned, the distinction was just that one word.

The Emperor would  then close the drawers and tell the frightened soul that he, the Emperor, has his eye on them, and then they were dismissed.

There happened to be in that land a philosopher who poured contempt on the souls that seemed to be so visibly shaken by their visit to this room of the Emperor’s.  All this to-do about these differences in these parchments?  Why, he said, it was clean contrary to reason.  The parchments were 99.99% identical, even if one arbitrarily excluded the drawers that housed them, which were also identical.  When cutting through the mysticism and hoo-ha, these parchments were materially identical.

It must be said the the philosopher had never visited the room himself, nor was he likely to.