A MAN came into a Wood one day and begged of the Trees the favor of a handle for his Axe. The Trees voted to sacrifice a young ash sapling.
The Man made the sapling into a handle and fixed it into the axe head, and soon set to work cutting down tree after tree. When Trees realized how the Man was using their gift, they cried “we have only ourselves to blame. The little we gave has cost us all: had we not sacrificed the rights of the ash, we might ourselves have stood for ages.”
The moral of the story: Those who sacrifice the rights of others deserve to lose their own rights and often do.
