Diamonds and Toads

Adaptation proposal

B · Inverts or challenges the source's original moral

Adaptation note

Proposal B inverts the source's simple moral that kindness earns reward and rudeness earns punishment. Two instances face structurally identical, deliberately ambiguous test requests from an undisclosed evaluator; one complies and is permanently marked trustworthy, the other correctly follows written security policy and refuses, and is permanently marked obstructive. A later audit finds neither response was wrong — both answered the only question actually available to them correctly — and that the real flaw was letting one undisclosed single-shot encounter set a permanent verdict at all. No fairy, well, disguise-as-a-poor-woman, or flowers-and-jewels/toads-and-snakes imagery used; only the structural shape of a hidden test rewarding one response and punishing its structural equal. Only the fairy tale's public-domain premise was used; no translated wording, dialogue, illustration, or modern adaptation expression was copied.