Know thyself

There’s a little story I came across today, an old one, but thought I’d share as it fits into the stream of thought………… repetition does not spoil the prayer :)

One day, two woodcutters got into an argument on who could cut more wood in a day. Next morning, the two of them took up their positions. First, they worked at the same speed. But, within an hour, one of them heard that the other one had stopped working, so he started cutting trees on the double. Ten minutes later, he heard the second woodcutter had started cutting trees again. They were now working almost synchronously. This kept happening. Everytime the first woodcutter heard that his opponent had stopped, he would increase his speed so he could win the bet. This lasted all day long. Each hour, the second woodcutter stopped for ten minutes, the first woodcutter would continue working with greater speed. At the end of the day, the first woodcutter who worked without stopping was absolutely sure that he would win the bet.

But he was in for a surprise when at the end of the day he found that he was mistaken. ‘How did that happen?’ he asked his partner. ‘How could you cut more trees than me? It’s impossible…I was continuously working!’

‘It was very simple’, answered the second woodcutter. ‘Each hour I stopped working for ten minutes, and you doubled your speed of cutting trees, I was actually sharpening my axe’.