Anna the Factory Manager Has Magical Powers

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Anna who worked as a manager at a dumpling factory. She was very good at her job. She was industrious. She was very brave. She also had the largest eyes ever because she was an owl. However, the factory workers feared her because if they didn't make 1000 dumplings per shift, she threatened to make spiders come out of their ears. That was her magical power, you see. Anyway, for this reason, nobody had ever made less than 1000 dumplings per shift because, well, the idea of spiders coming out of their ears sounded unpleasant.

One early evening as the workday ended, Anna discovered that one of her workers – Solomiya the Squirrel - had only produced 999 dumplings! Angry at this discovery, Anna's already large eyes grew even bigger!

“Solomiya! I demand an explanation for you missing the daily quota!”

"Are you sure? I am absolutely positive that I made 1,000. I've never made any less than that!"

"Yes, I guarantee there are only 999. In fact, I counted them 12 times to be sure."

“Please...please, forgive me. I really thought I had made 1000 dumplings.” Solomiya was on the verge of tears.

“You know,” said Anna, “I could use my magical powers and make spiders come out of your ears.” “Yes, I know. But you won't, right?”
“That's right. I would never do such a thing.”

Everybody in the factory cheered and agreed that Anna was the nicest manager ever! As a sign of gratitude, Viktor the little elephant handed Anna a bag of fresh dumplings.

“Oh, thank you,” said Anna. She tried a piece and immediately spit it out. “That was absolutely disgusting! Yikes! Do all of the dumplings in our factor taste like this???”

“Well, yeah. It's a terrible recipe. Nobody likes them,” confessed Viktor the penguin.
“Why didn't anybody tell me???” asked Anna.
“Because we were afraid you would make spider come out of our ears,” said Olga the Turtle.

Everybody nodded in shame. There was a moment of tension before Anna finally said, “Oh! Well, I suppose that's a really good reason not to tell me!” Then everybody laughed and laughed and laughed. Then this story came to an end.