Are you a Lincoln or a Feldmar? / Hubert Homefree

There once were two men named Lincoln and Feldmar. They were the same age, grew up in the same town, and even sort of looked alike. It just so happened that they both got the very best job in town- chief apple picker. This job was so highly regarded because these weren't your everyday apples. No, these apples grew in a special gated garden that only Lincoln and Feldmar had keys to and they tasted like chocolate cake, juicy steak, and syrup covered waffles all rolled up into one. At least the good ones did. The apples that weren't quite ripe yet tasted only like chocolate cake and syrup covered waffles. The apples that had fallen to the ground sometimes only tasted like apples. The apples that had been on the ground for awhile and had worms in them sometimes tasted like poop.

You get the idea. There was a range.

Anyway, as similar as Lincoln and Feldmar were they did have one very important difference. Whenever Lincoln and Feldmar came across an apple they weren't quite sure of, Lincoln went ahead and put it in his basket but Feldmar left it where it was. So, at the end of the day, Feldmar always had himslef a nice tidy basket about half full of the apples that tasted like chocolate cake, juicy steak, and syrup covered waffles all rolled up into one. He sold them for top dollar! Folks ate 'em right up!

Lincoln, on the other hand, ended his day stretching his sore back surrounded by many baskets of apples that may very well taste like chocolate cake, juicy steak, and syrup covered waffles all rolled up into one or might taste like poop. He had more apples to sell but folks didn't like them as much seeing as they weren't as high of quality.

They both made a decent living at this for awhile but eventually moved on and got MBAs. They remain close friends.

zeroth life lesson: when constructing a parable it's best to start with a valuable life lesson and then write a story that unveils it in a poignant way rather than starting with a stupid story about apples that ultimately goes nowhere.