If you ever find yourself in a position of power, be very wary of whom you trust. All too often in stories where kings, queens, sultans or other rulers meet their downfall...it is because they put all their trust into one loyal advisor.
Loyalty is wonderful and when you can find one person who is ultimately loyal to you, it seems like a grand thing. But unfortunately, power corrupts, and even the most loyal person can become selfish or led astray to walk the wrong paths. Imagine you are the the king's most trusted advisor. This in essence, is really the most powerful position! For if you have the ear of the king, and he ultimately does what you advise him to do...just think of the possibilities! Oh sure, it starts out innocently enough, with just small favors and tokens. But being human, emotions run rampant at times and rash decisions are made. If you have the access to do powerful things (via the king) very bad things could start happening, and all in the name of the king, or country, or people while in the truth they are in the name of your own selfish desires. And once you start down that hill, it's very hard to stop!
Imagine then that you are the king. If you put all your trust into one person, they can be feeding you anything they want you to believe. If you do not have other perspectives, opinions, or go out and see for yourself, you have no way of proving or disproving anything your advisor tells you. Of course, the relationship doesn't start that way. Oh no, in the beginning it'll be pure and true. Your advisor is loyal to you and cares about you and the country. But then as you entrust him with more and more, he begins to realize the true power he holds and starts to use it for his own purposes. He then becomes blinded to his true purpose and feeds his own desires eventually to the point where he believes his own wants are for the good of the people.
How then do you avoid such an inevitable downfall? In the world of humans it is dependent upon the people around you, and the situations.
One idea is, have at least 3 advisors. 1 whom you know if loyal only to you, 1 whom is strongly loyal to the country, and 1 who wants only what is good for the people. It may also be beneficial if they don't get along with each other. In this way, you should be able to receive information, opinions and perspectives from 3 different angles. And there is less chance that they would conspire with each other to control you. As well, you could have each one keeping an eye on the other. This could work and it could also cause discord and havoc within your information team, so it would have to be expertly executed, the people well-chosen.
So, if you are the king, don't set all your trust in one place ("don't put all your eggs in one basket")
And if you happen to be the advisor to the king, don't let him place all his trust in you, for that is just as dangerous as if you were the king.
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