The Rams and the Butcher
Once upon a time, in a wide valley where cool waters flowed gently, there lived a flock of rams that took pride in their majestic horns. Every morning these handsome animals ate the fresh grass covered with dew and ran merrily across the fields with their sturdy bodies. Yet the one thing they lacked was that strong sense of unity they would offer one another in a moment of danger. The sharp smells and noises rising from the narrow path beside the farm seemed to announce the dark days that were drawing near. One day a merciless butcher, a gleaming knife in his hand, appeared at the wooden gate of the sheepfold. The whetstone at the butcher's belt and the cold look that betrayed his intention did not escape the old ram of the flock. The old ram sensed the coming disaster and called out to his companions with deep worry and great excitement.
'My friends, this man is coming to bring an end to us all, so we must unite at once and stand against him!' he said. But the young and careless rams would not listen to this just warning from their old friend. One of the flock stepped forward and answered with reproach, 'Why do you take our peace away for nothing?' 'The man will take only one of us today, and the rest of us will go on grazing in the green meadows,' he added. Selfishness and a blind indifference quickly covered the minds of the rams like a fog. Each of them preferred to withdraw quietly into his own corner, believing that his turn would never come. The butcher, meeting no resistance at all, separated the first ram he had chosen from the flock and took it away.
The next day the butcher returned to the sheepfold and slowly led another strong ram outside. Those who remained watched this sorrowful departure only from a distance, believing that the danger did not touch them. As the days passed one after another, the number of rams in the flock fell quickly and the sheepfold became completely deserted. In the end, when the indifferent ram left alone in the sheepfold understood that his turn had come, it was already far too late. At the moment he grasped the value of acting together, not a single friend was left around him to ask for help. A common threat that is not resisted together is doomed to destroy everyone, one by one, in time. Where there is unity, there is peace.