Why did the king call the issue "a tricky thing"?

The king called it a 'tricky thing' because it required a good measure of wisdom and a fair sense of justice to resolve an issue where the blame ultimately came on the king. As the plans went awry, someone had to be made the scapegoat to take the blame but the culprit turned out to be the king because he was the last one to make certain amendments to the plan the architect had shown. It made the king nearly lose his head but being a just and placid king, he wanted wise counsel to deal with this matter amicably and without any biases.