MINT 3.0
“Thank you my good fellows, excellent work today, at this pace the well will be dug in time for the rains” said the chief. After all the volunteers have left the site, the other council members joined him to review the day’s work and discuss the plans for the next day. “Chief,” one lamented, “it was kind of you to commend them on the day’s work and try to encourage and lift their spirits up, but in the end we have to
acknowledge that the work is progressing at a very slow pace and at this rate we will never get it finished.”
Every one nodded in agreement. And there was a brief pause while they contemplated the hopelessness of the situation. “Yes, I acknowledge your concerns and your fears are just. But I see no way out of this situation.” said the poor chief, who continued, “tomorrow let’s have a council meeting and discuss this issue further.” They all broke away for the night.
“Order, order,” called the chief, “This meeting of the council is officially open for discussion.” “As we all aware this council decided to dig a well for the benefit of the town, to collect and store rain water during the rainy season, for use during the dry, hot summer months, as water is becoming scarce and we have to go searching deep into the forest, which I should remind you all is quite dangerous.
We all understand the importance of this task, but the question before us is, ‘What should we do to speed up the work?’, so as to complete it well before the first drop falls, which by any indication is soon upon us.” an old timer compiled the situation briefly.
A moment of silence followed. “Why don’t we dig day and night?” said one, realising quickly the futility of the idea. The council was a flurry of ideas, thrown back and forth, some useful, some helpful, some silly. But in the end the only one that got a favourable response from all was, to incentivise the whole operation. The council decide to pay the volunteers for their labour, as this would provide the much needed boost to re-double their effort. The motion was put to vote and unanimously adopted.
But their plan back fired. What was a very honourable move by the council soon turned against them. The work rendered by the townsfolk went from a ‘honour system’, where every one tried to out do the rest for honour and glory, to a ‘market system’, where every one started to
compare what amount of work was being done by others, and matched accordingly, nothing more nothing less.
And soon they found a way to game the system, as the pay was on a hourly basis, “Why work more for less?” they thought, “when you can work less for more (hourly wages).” Soon the culture spread, because it was what everyone was doing, so there is nothing wrong in doing what everyone is doing. All this had one very undesired consequence, the treasury was being depleted at a faster rate, much to the alarm of the council, who decided prudently to discontinue the payments and go back to the work on a voluntary basis.
But to their utter dismay the work stopped completely. The volunteers did not want to work for free what they were paid to do so previously. They thought that the council members were stealing their legitimate right for compensation. All hell broke loose.
“Well, we did a pretty bad job,” the chief said at the urgently gathered meeting, “what is left in the coffers?” he posed to the Treasurer. “Just 20 gold coins” replied he, to a gasp from the members. “Well, there is only one thing left to do, I think we should send someone to go and
get help from Mint, the clever monkey who lives on the other side of the forest, who’s wisdom is know far and wide.”
Everyone rejoiced at this suggestion and soon a member was selected to carry out this task. “Hello, Greetings, are you Mint?”
“Yes, I am and who are who my dear friend?” Mint enquired back. The stranger narrated who he was and the purpose of his visit, and how badly they were in need of his help.
“Rest, my dear weary traveller,” Mint offered him water to quench his thirst, “I will help you, go and inform the members of the council that I will meet them at the
outskirts of your village, after sunset. And tell them to come in secret, without anyone knowing. And also inform your chief to bring the remaining gold coins.” “I will do just as you ordered” and thanked Mint profusely and took leave.
“Welcome, we are much honoured by your presence” said the chief of the council as they were all relieved to see Mint, “we have everything you requested and waiting for orders.” Mint instructed that they hand him one gold coin, and bury the rest at the site where the well was being dug.
“Spread out and bury at different depths and cover your tracks well” said Mint. The council was aghast at first, “Bury the coins?” But they trusted Mint and did as he requested.
Mint took the single gold coin and went into the town looking for his first victim, and soon found one. “Hello, friend,” Mint greeted, “can I borrow your digging tools, just for the night?”
“Be my guest, they have been idling since the council stopped paying for our work.” said the victim of the plot.
“Thanks, I will return it to you in the morning, as soon as I have finished work.” said Mint.
“What? what are you going to do in the dead of the night with it?” “Well since you are kind and generous to let me use your tools, I will tell you the secret,” said Mint to the now curious victim, and glanced to make sure that there was no one around, and said in a low voice, “Do you know the site where you are digging your well?”
“Off course” replied he, “Well just today as I was passing by, a shiny thing caught my eye and I went near and picked it up out of curiosity and was surprised to find this,” saying this Mint carefully took the gold coin and showed it to him and quickly hid it inside his palm, “I am going for more and once again thanks for your tools and please keep this a secret.” Mint went around looking for such ‘eager’ victims. Soon the site of the well was a flurry of activity. But, now the work was progressing at a much faster pace and each one had demarcated their boundary and claimed rights to their digging site and all that possibly lay beneath.
The members of the council watched from afar, and were smiling that their trick had worked, but found that Mint was not sharing their joy, “Why aren’t you pleased?” enquired the chief.
“I am. But why did I bury all the coins? Just a couple of coins would have worked equally good” said Mint as everyone chuckled. “Mint, I have one question, what if they find all the gold that we buried, then will the activity stop?” “Good question,” said Mint, “since we buried the gold at different depths, the variable nature of the reward and effort will keep them going on until, we let the truth out.”
“You mean to say that, if we keep mum they will dig all the way to the other side. Please Mint now you have to save the Earth.” All of them roared in laughter.
THE END