The Happy Man’s Shirt      study guide

1. What is wrong with the king’s son?

2. What does the king do to try to cure his son? What do the wise men recommend?

3. What does the king eventually discover about the priest and the neighboring king?

4. How does the king discover the happy man? Who is this man?

5. Is the happy man able to do the favor the king requests?

Interpret
6. What might be the real reason the prince is unhappy?

7. Why do you think the wise men make the suggestion they do? How might a shirt help the prince?

8. Do you think the neighboring king would have given his shirt to the ambassadors, had they asked for it?

9. What makes the king believe that the young man he has found is truly happy?

10. How do you think the king feels when he unbuttons the young man’s jacket?

Evaluate and Connect

11. Do you think it is possible to have everything one might wish for and still be unhappy, like the prince in the story?

12. In your opinion, what is the lesson, or moral, of this story?