The Fool of the Year :

Fool of the Year contest was open to all the courtiers of King Krishnadeva Raya.
All the people looked forward to the event as the winner stood to gain a handsome prize of 5000 gold coins.
The trouble was, Raman always won the contest.
One year the other courtiers decided that he must be kept out of it and bribed his servant to lock him in his room to prevent him from reaching the palace in time for the event.
Consequently Raman reached the palace after the contest was over and just as the name of the winner was about to be announced.
Seeing Raman come in, the king asked him why he was so late.
Raman told him he was in need of a hundred gold coins and had been engaged in trying to raise the amount.
"If you had participated in the contest you might have won the prize money and your problem would have been solved," said the king. "You've behaved very foolishly."