When Monkeys Garden

Once upon a time, a king had a troop of monkeys. It was in charge of a giant monkey.

As the king’s gardener was going on a day’s leave, he said to the leader of the monkeys, “Friend, for today, please command your followers to water the plants in the king’s garden.”

The leader readily agreed to the request.

All the monkeys turned out in full strength to water the plants with pots in their hands and were doing their job vigorously when the leader had a doubt.

“Monkeys,” he shouted at them, “I hope you are not wasting the water. Give each plant what it needs and not a drop more.”

“Sir,” one monkey asked, “How can we know how much water each plant needs?”

“Nothing simpler,” exclaimed. Their chief, “Take each plant out of the ground and measure its root length and do the watering accordingly.”

When the gardener returned from his day’s leave, he was heartbroken to find all the plants in the garden uprooted and thrown aside.