Being “Fair” – A Farmer’s Story

One autumn, an old farmer looked outside at his flourishing crop. With both excitement and despair in his voice he said to his wife “how am I ever going to harvest this all by myself?”

“Why don’t you hire some of those young contractors in town? I’m sure they’d be available and would love to help,” she replied.

So the farmer did just that. He found two young gents who were willing to come work for him for 6 pounds each. Bright and early that coming Saturday morning, the two gents came to his farm before the sun was up and began working away. The farmer’s neighbours saw the contractors working in the field once they awoke and went over to see what was going on. The farmer explained how he had lots to harvest and needed all the help he could get. At noon, three of the neighbours came out to help him too. Later that afternoon, around 3 pm, two more of the farmer’s friends from town stopped in and put on some gloves – helping the crew load the last of the crop onto the farmer’s truck.

The farmer was delighted by everyone’s help! To thank everyone, he asked them to line up to receive their payment for the day. To his friends, who arrived at 3, he handed over 6 pounds. They had expected nothing and were ecstatic to have earned something. To his neighbours, who arrived at noon, he also handed over 6 pounds. They too, were ecstatic.

By this time, the two young contractors were pretty ticked off. They had worked for at least 6 hours longer than the others! When the farmer came to them, and handed them 6 pounds, they were sour and upset.

The farmer looked at them and said: “This is the amount we agreed upon. I am not cheating you out of any money, nor less thankful for the work you have done. I can see you are upset though. However, what I do with my generosity should not affect your gratitude for it.”

When we go the extra mile, we want special recognition. But “sometimes in life, when you’ve given, and given, and given, and given – the reward is knowing that you did.” (John Furlong)

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