A Hilarious Laundry Day

King Rufus, still clutching his royal pajamas (which, to be fair, were made of the finest silk and embroidered with tiny golden crowns), peered into the wicker depths of his laundry basket. It was a surprisingly deep basket, a veritable cavern of slightly-too-worn royal garments. He’d been instructed by Squeaky, the wise old squirrel whose advice he now grudgingly accepted, to check “every nook and cranny, every pocket and pouch, and every place you might have absentmindedly stashed something precious.” Rufus had, of course, been absentminded about his gold with alarming frequency, a fact he was only now beginning to truly appreciate.

He rummaged through a pair of silk socks that had seen better days, a slightly singed royal robe (a lingering reminder of his ill-fated attempt to “melt down” a suspicious-looking cloud), and then, his fingers brushed against something hard and unmistakably… coin-shaped.

“Aha!” Rufus exclaimed, pulling out a handful of his beloved gold pieces, tangled amongst the leg of his royal pajamas. They gleamed even in the dim light filtering through the palace windows. He stared at them, then at the pajamas, then back at the coins, a slow, dawning horror spreading across his face.