The Butterfly that Stamped
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The Butterfly that Stamped is part of a series of books known as Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. These are collected short stories. The stories explain how things supposedly came to be.
[edit] Plot
“The Butterfly that Stamped” is one of the stories that is about King Solomon, his lovely wife Balkis, his other nine-hundred ninety nine wives, and two charming but quarrelsome butterflies. Solomon (who mainly goes by Suleiman bin Daoud in the story) is a very wise man, but is very annoyed with his surplus wives. He thinks they are very loud and ungrateful. One day, when walking in his forest, Suleiman bin Daoud stumbles upon two butterflies arguing.
The male butterfly told his wife he could stamp his foot, and the garden would disappear. Suleiman bin Daoud finds the claim amusing and, after asking the butterfly why he lied, he agrees to actually make the garden disappear on the butterfly’s cue. Meanwhile, Balkis has a chat with the butterfly’s wife, and tells her she should dare her husband to stamp his foot, since he must be lying.
The female butterfly dares her husband, who then does stamp his foot, and the garden disappears. This makes Solomon's less pleasant wives deathly afraid. Balkis explains the situation, and they in turn become scared of Solomon's powers, and are nice and quiet from then on.
