Mindset story: The king’s blind trust

Once upon a time, there lived a king who ruled a small kingdom that was full of vineyards, and most of his subjects produced wine. No neighboring kingdom could match the quality, taste, and quantity of wine they produced. Since the kingdom produced more than it consumed it made a fortune selling the wine to its neighboring kingdoms. The king made sure his subjects had everything they needed to keep producing the best wine and he always looked for ways to make his subjects even happier and more content, so that they would continue with their work and not relocate to other kingdoms. His strategy worked well and all of the 20.000 families living and working in the kingdom were very loyal to him. For several years the king had been studying the finances of his kingdom. He was a just ruler, full of understanding and he tried very hard to be able to lower taxes so that there would be more left for his subjects. Finally one day it dawned on him. He decided to abolish taxes. His advisers were shocked and reminded the king why they had taxes in the first place. They needed the money to run the kingdom. They needed to pay everyone from the ones who took care of general public things to the army that protected them from any enemies. The king calmed his advisers by explaining his plan. The plan was to abolish taxes but at the same time, he will ask each of his subjects to contribute one jug of their best wine once a year during the bottling season and pour it into a large barrel the size of more than twenty thousand liters, which will be set up until then. From selling those twenty thousand liters of wine, they will get money for the royal budget, health insurance, army, education, and more. The advisers were in doubt as they were sure that there would be a person or two that would find a way to take advantage of the king’s blind trust. But the king didn’t want to hear anything about it.

The news spread throughout the kingdom like wildfire. The joy of the people was indescribable as they celebrated for many days and nights and sang songs and toasted drinks in the king’s honor. After a couple of days of celebrating, things returned to how they were. People worked hard in their vineyards, children went to school, and the kingdom flourished as never before. Finally, the day of the tax arrived. Throughout the week, residents reminded each other on the roads, in markets, and…