This is a story from from the EDF book of fairy stories and nursery rhymes.
The Kings new centre for the enhancement of magic
There was once a king who was so poor, both financially and intellectually, that he decided to sell some of his kingdom to his fellow monarchs.
Of course this was not going to be easy to do, and so he announced that he would build a new centre for the enhancement of magic.
He knew that this was going to be really difficult to do, and so he offered many bags of gold to go with it.
This was a very very popular move, or at least that is what his advisers told him.
So he spent a lot more of the gold, which he had taken from his impoverished subjects, in producing many hand coloured maps to show what a wonderful place the new magic education centre might be.
One fine morning he opened the gates to his palace in order to show just what wonderful maps they were.
While his advisers stood around and praised him for his visionary ideas.
One small boy happened to pass by, and having never been allowed in the the palace before, [ as a result of all the heavy armoured guards with the shiny new weapons which surrounded the place ], he decided to take a look at what was going on.
As luck would have it the small boy had not heard about these very fine maps, and so he was able to see what they really were.
Thus he exclaimed:- ‘ It’s wet and it’s water, and it’s water and it’s wet.’
This was because the map showed that much of the new magic education centre would soon be under the sea.
This did not go down well for the king. So he ordered that the small boy be clapped in irons and thrown in to his deepest dungeon.
Yet the small boy continued to shout:- ‘ It’s wet and it’s water, and it’s water and it’s wet.’
Yet it took many years for the people to hear his cries.
While the king is still trying to sell his new centre for the enhancement of magic.