The Burden of Stones
A dry, ironic fable: in the kingdom of Sloppdom, everyone keeps a copy of the shared Great Ledger that holds the king in check. Then King Slopp lets people chisel worthless notes onto rocks attached to gold transactions — for a fee — and forces every citizen to store them forever. The rich shrug; the poor are crushed, hoarding rubbish that isn't theirs until they're too burdened to hold the king to account. A parable about how junk data forced onto a shared ledger falls hardest on the smallest holders.
