Choosing a King

For sure, if I had to have a king, I would want someone very clever like this guy;

"The Tyrians having been much weakened by long wars with the Persians, their slaves rose in a body, slew their masters and their children, and then seized on their houses and wives whom they married.

The slaves having thus got possession of all, consulted about the choice of a king, and agreed that he who could first discern the sunrise should be king.

One of them, being more merciful than the rest, had, in the general massacre, spared his master Straton, and his son, whom he hid in a cave, and to his old master he now resorted for his advice as to his competition.

What was Straton's advice?

Straton advised his slave, that when others looked to the east he should look towards the west.

Accordingly, when the rebel tribe had all assembled in the fields, and every man's eyes were fixed upon the east, Straton's slave, turning his back upon the rest, looked only westward.

He was scoffed at by everyone for his absurdity, but immediately he espied the sunbeams upon the high towers and chimneys in the city, and announcing the discovery, claimed the crown as his reward.