Once upon a time there was a small mining town with two classes of people. There were short men and there were tall men. Every day the short men went to the field and dug brick after brick after brick out of the ground. At the end of the day they got to keep one brick for each ten that they mined.
Of course, mining the bricks was very hard work, and usually a short man would only get two or three a day, so the bricks would be sliced and the equivalent of ten percent would be given to the short man who had mined them. The short men strapped these slices to the bottom of their shoes in the hopes of one day becoming tall men.
The rest of the bricks went to the tall men, who kept them safe and secure for the good of everyone, other than those that they strapped to their own shoes to make sure everyone knew they were tall. In return for this service the short men kept the tall men safe and happy, so they could better protect the bricks. They served their food, they connected their calls, they cleaned the streets and enforced the laws. The short men provided all manner of service to the tall men, so grateful were they that the bricks they mined were kept safe.
One day a short man stopped in the middle of mining and looked around. His eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed. Obviously something was bothering this short man. His fellow short men kept mining bricks, not even noticing their comrade’s distress. The short man shrugged and went back to mining.
The next day the same short man did the same thing. As he looked around at the other short men dotting the field, mining out bricks, he noticed one other short man doing the same, with the same furrowed brow and narrowed eyes. They made eye contact and went back to mining.
The third day there were three short men with furrowed brows and narrowed eyes and the fourth day there were four.
On the fifth day one short man asked the now five short men who had furrowed brows and narrowed eyes “What are you so distressed over? We have bricks to mine here! Get to work.”
The first of the short men who had furrowed his brow looked at the speaker and then took in his fellows with his gaze before speaking. “I think we are all wondering why we are mining bricks,” he said.
The other short man was flabbergasted. “Well,” he spluttered. “So we can strap them to our feet.”
“Why do we strap them to our feet, though?” the first of the short men asked.
“So we can be tall!”
There was a silence as all of the short men pondered this. Then the first of the short men spoke up. “But… I don’t really want or need to be tall. Honestly, all of these brick slices strapped to my feet make it hard to walk. I don’t even know how the tall men do it,” and he took the brick slices off of his feet.
The short man who had spoken first spluttered in disbelief. His face turned red and he turned to the other short men. “Can you believe he did that?!” His jaw dropped further as he noticed a number of the short men doing the same.
There was much shifting and shuffling as the short men who had removed their brick slices sorted themselves from those who had not. Eventually there were two groups of short men staring at each other. Finally, the short man who had originally spoken said “We are telling the tall men about this!” He turned and marched up to where the tall men lived, his contingent of brick-footed short men following, slipping and stumbling up the hill.
The short men with no bricks looked at each, shrugged, and followed. They ended up arriving at the tall men’s houses first, as they were not stumbling over brick slices.
The tall men came to their balconies to see what the ruckus was about and the short man leading those who had kept their brick slices yelled up, “Tall men! These short men say they no longer want to mine bricks! They took the slices off their feet!”
The tall men discussed amongst themselves for a moment and then shouted down “Why should they get away with not mining bricks, when you still do? You have worked your whole life for those slices on your feet! Are these other short men saying they would like the slices without working for them? They think they deserve them for free? Do they want you to mine harder and then share yours with them?”
There was much grumbling amongst all of the short men at this statement. The two sides grew farther apart, the men who kept their slices shooting suspicious and nearly hateful looks to the men who had removed theirs.
“You misunderstand us,” the first of the short men who had furrowed his brow said. “We do not want you to mine harder for more bricks and then to share them with us. We don’t even know why we are mining these bricks, other than to give them to the tall men.”
“You just don’t want to work!” The leader of the other short men spat back. “You are lazy and you want everyone else to do everything for you.”
The tall men looked on as the two groups faced off, the men with their brick slices red in the face, waving their arms furiously, while the men with no brick slices looked slightly bemused.
“You don’t need to do anything for us, any more than you need to do anything for the tall men,” the first short man who had furrowed his brow said. “We already have the bricks. We just don’t need to give them to the tall men anymore.”
The tall men shifted about on their chairs, looking nervous. The short man who was leading those with brick slices said “Then who will keep the bricks safe?”
The first short man who had furrowed his brow said “From who?”
The other short man responded “From YOU!”
The first short man who had furrowed his brow chuckled deeply “You are not listening, Short Man. We already have the bricks.” He turned and walked back to the brick field and went back to mining bricks. At the end of the day he stacked all of the bricks he had mined at a certain spot in the brick field, without slicing them or carrying them up to the tall men. He fell asleep next to his pile of bricks.
He and the other men who had removed their brick slices did this same thing for days and days until one day they judged that they had enough.
The short men, who were still faithfully mining and slicing and delivering bricks to the tall men, watched in astonishment as the men took their bricks and built a large house out of them.
The next day these men did not return to mine the brick field at all.
The leader of the short men snorted and called out one day “What will you do without bricks?!”
The man shouted back “What will we do with bricks? We have our house. We do not need bricks.”
“You will never be tall,” the short man called.
“I am taller than the tallest tall man already,” replied the man. “Remove the bricks, and they are no taller than you, either.”