A Wise Piece of Strategy

A Wise Piece of Strategy

1990 9 September 15 A Wise Piece of Strategy (392) The world is a testing ground. From the very first day there has been competition among human beings. And this is a state of affairs which is not going to change. It will go on until the very last day. That is because this system of competition is of God’s own making. No individual or group has it in its power to change this pattern, however much it may seem desirable to do so.

In this world of competition one can succeed only by having wisdom, and by using it. Whatever the matter in hand, one must try to have an in-depth understanding of it and then proceed accordingly. Only by such a display of wisdom will conditions be created which are favourable to success.

The tale reproduced below is an apt illustration of this point.

There was once a fox who struck up a great friendship with a crane. One day the fox said to the crane, “Come, let’s cook a pudding together. And when it is ready, we shall both of us eat it together. You bring some ingredients and I’ll bring some.” Both of them then brought the necessary ingredients and the pudding was cooked.

When the time came to put the pudding into a dish for eating, the fox immediately produced a flat dish into which he emptied the pudding. The fox started eating and invited the crane to have some too. It was easy for the fox to eat from the flat dish. So he soon finished the entire pudding. The crane with his long, pointed beak was hardly able to eat any at all.

Now it dawned on the crane that the fox had made a fool of him, so he planned a piece of strategy of his own. He asked the fox to prepare the pudding once again. Again all the ingredients were provided by both of them, and the pudding was cooked by both. Now the crane, as planned, immediately brought out a pitcher for the pudding to be emptied into, and this was how he served it up. The crane immediately put his long beak into the pitcher and started eating, all the while inviting the fox to have his share. But now the situation was reversed in favour of the crane. The crane now had his fill, while the fox went hungry.