Helena Handbasket

By Tivoli

Predator

Imagine a flock of sheep.
Shepherds, dogs and sheep all provide supportive roles to one another and each understands their part to play in that relationship.
One day, unexpectedly, a new shepherd buys the flock, gets rid of the experienced shepherds, re-classifies the sheep into four arbitrary categories, and allocates one dog per category.
The new categories are; meat, wool, dairy and poo.
First the new shepherd sells the “dairy” flock along with its dog for sixpence.
Then he sells the “wool” flock along with their dog for a shilling.
He intends to retain the “meat” flock for a good while to fatten it up, and divest himself of the “poo” flock, but he cannot find any buyers for that.

The new shepherd knows nothing of sheep, nor dogs, but trusts that his knowledge of business will see him through.
So today he thought it might be a good business strategy to give the “meat” dog a treat in the presence of the “poo” dog, with the expectation that the unrewarded dog might work harder to make the poo flock more marketable.

1982: The year an uninsured driver smashed my motorcycle, broke my shoulder and prevented me from working during the summer break from college.

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