There once was a baker who owned a small town bakery.
She worked hard to provide baked goods for the local residents. The existence
of a competing bakery in town irritated her. “If I owned the ONLY bakery in
town, all would be eating my bread and my profits would increase! I make the
finest bread. How could one choose another’s bread over mine?”
The baker grew increasingly agitated, seeing her
competitor’s bread on the stores’ racks near hers. She resorted to moving the
competing baked goods to the bottom rack of the displays or hiding the loaves
all together. Once she was even caught surreptitiously removing the other
bakery’s bread from a store. She pushed local merchants to drop her competitor’s
goods, claiming that they were inferior. Her advertisements proclaimed that her
bread was the most popular and the only one worth consuming.
The baker continued on her crusade to stamp out the
competition and did not comprehend that eating a single type of bread gets
dull. People enjoy variety. The baker realized some success from her campaign,
perhaps more than she realized.
The competing bakery discovered a new bread recipe that
gained quick acceptance in the town. As the sales of the new bread increased,
the small town baker saw her profits crater. She had fervently preached the
need for only one bakery for so long that now her business was in jeopardy.
Choice is always a good thing. It makes everyone work
harder and it keeps all from getting into a rut. If two bakeries bake the same
breads there would not be a need for both. It is their differences that make
them relevant.
Any similarities in my parable to anyone living or dead
are purely coincidental.
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