Once upon a time there was a cow. In all the world there was no animal that so regularly gave so much milk of such high quality. People came from far and wide to see this wonder. The cow was extolled by all. Fathers told their children of its dedication to its appointed task. Ministers of religion adjured their flocks to emulate it in their own way. Government officials referred to it as a paragon which right behavior, planning, and thinking could duplicate in the human community. Everyone was, in short, able to benefit from the existence of this wonderful animal. There was, however, one feature that most people, absorbed as they were by the obvious advantages of the cow, failed to observe. It had a little habit, you see. And this habit was that—as soon as a pail had been filled with its unparalleled milk—it kicked it over.

From Idries Shah’s Wisdom of the Idiots, London: The Octagon Press, 1970 (first published in 1969), p. 73.