Hundreds of years ago in Japan a convict from the county jail, Ko-Ko by name, had been condemned to death by decapitation for unspecified crimes. Just prior to the punishment being meted out, a series of unlikely events that can only be explained as Divine Intervention, resulted in his last minute reprieve and pardon. Koko then rose from his lowly station in life to attain the exalted office of Lord High Executioner of the town of Titipu, a plum position reporting directly the Mikado, the deified ruler of all Japan.
As you have already surmised, when it came time for Ko-Ko to do his duty as the office required and separate the next convict’s head from his shoulders, he was not up to the task, and through yet another series of unlikely events that eclipses even those endured by Lemony Snicket in a far distant future tale, Ko-Ko’s seemingly idyllic life crumbled like yesterday’s cornbread. In the blink of an eye he lied to the Mikado, lost his lovely fiancé Yum-Yum to a wandering minstrel (actually the Mikado’s son), and was forced to marry Katisha, an overbearing and ogre-like maiden of advanced years.
The Moral: If you want to be an effective leader and retain your high-level position, you are going to have to occasionally make a few heads roll!