The Christmas of 1988 king Carl XVI Gustaf was going to buy a computergame for prince Carl Philip In the toy store he waited in the que,just like the others. The young male clerk, that by the way was hired on temporarily basis took the creditcard, and then by routine he did what he had done so many other times in the christmas rush without thinking. He asked for ID!

But not enough with that. He also asked for name and address for the warranty! How did that look when it was filled in?
"Name: King Carl XVI Gustaf, Address: Drottningholm Slott". I wonder
what zipcode he has. Is there a zipcode for the castle? What purpose
would that make then? But if the postal services are so stuck with
routines as the clerk was, I'm sure there is a zipcode for the castle
too.

The funniest thing about the story of the king in the toystore, is that it's the only true story in the swedish book of Bengt af Klintberg -
"Den stulna njuren" (The stolen kidney). The book is otherwise a collection of some of the tnewest talls. Why is the story then in the book, even though it's true? Well, it's simply because it's been made alot of talls out of this story. The papers out in the world have rewritten it, and changed it. Our King has for been replaced for other european royalties. That's the way it is with most talls. A real event is retelled many times and in the end it's a whole another story.

By the way the story has an extra thing at the end. When the Kings
lifeguard was going to go out with the present, the alarm started
beeping. Guards got there and all the people in the store, looked at the lifeguard. The clerk had been so excited about the kings visit
that he had forgotten to remove the alarm. The story had of course
gotten much funnier if it had been the king who carried out the present... But it wasn't that way, different from in the talls...

Magnus

Source: "Den stulna njuren" by Bengt af Klintberg

Translation: Peter Hallsteinsen

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