Monday, 5 May 2025
Many people in the world long to achieve perfect fairness and perfect equality, but it is never easy. To achieve these, people need to learn how to share. We hope that you will understand more through listening to the following story.
There was once a very unfair Prince, Prince Lapio. If two people went to him over some disputes, expecting him to resolve the matter, he would decide in favor of which one seemed more charming, or more handsome, or whoever had the best-looking sword.
Tired of all this, Lapio’s father, the King, decided to get a wise man to teach his son about justice. The wise man brought Lapio to a desert island, where they had no food or water.
In order to survive, Prince Lapio must hunt for food. On the first few days, Prince Lapio managed to catch some fish. However, he refused to share the fish with the wise man. Some days later, the Prince was not that lucky to get any food while the wise man managed to have birds almost every day. Just as what the prince had done, the wise man refused to share his food. Lapio got thinner and thinner until he finally burst into tears and begged the wise man to share some food to save him from starving to death.
“I will only share food with you if you show me you’ve learnt a lesson.” said the wise man. The prince replied, “Justice consists of sharing what we have, equally.”
The wise man believed the prince had learnt a lesson and thus gave him some food.
On that afternoon, a ship arrived and rescued the prince and the wise man. On their return journey, they met a man from a tribe, who had trouble with the neighboring tribe. They had conflicts on how to share the meat and vegetables.
“Count the number of people and share the food in equal proportions,” suggested the prince. But after this, a group of angry men rushed to Prince Lapio and took him to the prison.
They did this to the prince because some in the tribe ate little while some ate a lot. The solution suggested by the prince would make some people starve to death.
The prince then came up with a new solution, “Don’t share the food equally. Instead, give people the right amount of food according to their physical needs.”
The people in the tribe all liked this idea so they released the prince and the wise man.
As they were walking along, the Prince commented, “I’ve learned something new. It is not fair to give the same to all. The fair thing is to share, but you must take people’s diverse needs into account.” Then the wise man smiled with satisfaction.
In reality, people are trying to achieve perfect justice; however, they may not consider the situation thoughtfully. Their effort trying to promote fairness has made it even unfair. This story taught us that we must consider reality, and share accordingly with the best amount. In this way, we, human beings, could finally get closer to perfect justice.
Guide Light
14 February 2022