A Pond Full Of Milk

Once there was a king who told some of his workers to dig a pond.

Once the pond was dug, the king made an announcement to his people saying that one person from each household has to bring a glass of milk during the night and pour it into the pond.

So, the pond should be full of milk by the morning.

After receiving the order, everyone went home.

One man prepared to take the milk during the night. He thought that since everyone will bring milk, he could just hide a glass of water and pour inside the pond. Because it will be dark at night, no one will notice. So he quickly went and poured the water in the pond and came back.

In the morning, the king came to visit the pond and to his surprise the pond was only filled with water! What has happened is that everyone was thinking like the other man that "I don't have to put the milk, someone else will do it."

Dear friends, when it comes to help poor people, do not think that others will take care of it. Rather, it starts from you, if you don't do it, no one else will do it.

So, change yourself to the way of God to serve Him and that will make the difference.

Garret Hardin in his monumental work described this phenomenon as "Tragedy of Commons". He explained this phenomenon with Sheep grazing at pasturelands as an example. Pasturelands are 'public good', and everyone wants to maximize his benefits by putting as many sheep for grazing, but no one wants to maintain the pastureland. Certainly, the Tragedy of Commons is insurmountable challenge to policy makers, especially with environmental aspect.

Hello rmshbala,
This is more commonly known as a Akbar & Birbal story.
But neverthless, by whichever credit-line it's known with, the gist & moral essentially remains the same--as you mentioned.
Do keep posting such beautiful ones.
Rgds,
TS