Once upon a time there lived a peasant. His house stood near a large mountain, and the fields were behind the mountain. Every day, going to the field, the peasant, his children and grandchildren had to go around this mountain either to the right or to the left. The path turned out to be long, and half of the time was spent on the road. Each time everyone was annoyed with the mountain, but they could not do anything.
But one day a peasant gathered all his sons, daughters and grandchildren and said: “The mountain near which our house stands has taken half of my life.” It will be the same for you, your children, your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This mountain will uselessly take away half of everyone’s life. We can't tolerate this anymore. Let's tear down this mountain. Then we will quickly reach our field along the straight road. During the time that we now spend walking around the mountain, we will do a lot of good for ourselves and for people. What do you say to this?
Everyone happily agreed with grandfather. Only the grandmother, his wife, did not agree. She said: “Is it possible to demolish this mountain!” Your lives are not enough for this.
But everyone objected to her in unison: “The reason you say that, grandma, is because you don’t have to go to the field along this long road much, because you spend most of your time at home!”
The grandmother’s words did not convince anyone, and everyone decided to start work right away.
Neighbors in the village heard about this idea, and one widow was the first to send her young and strong son to help. Others came to his aid.
Only one old man, who considered himself very smart because he was rich, said that this was a pointless idea.
“You are planning an empty business,” he said to the peasant. - How could you, an old, gray-haired man, come up with this? It is impossible to demolish even one millionth of this mountain in your entire life. And at the top of the mountain there are huge rocks. Is it possible for a person to cope with these rocks?
But the peasant answered him: “I know that I am old and I have little time left to live.” But I have many sons who have many children, my sons’ children will also have children, and so there will be more and more of them... But the mountain does not grow. If I snatch a piece from it, another one will not grow. And if we all take on it, won’t we overcome it? The time will come when people will no longer need to go around this mountain - they will walk along the straight path.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru