Re: [idn] Future of the requirements document

["ben" <ben@cc-www.com>]

I apologize for wasting bandwidth, but this reminds me of a little
story I heard when I was a kid...

In China, many people are vegetarians because they believe it is a sin
to kill any living thing.  So the story goes... two men are crossing
the river with a boat.  One man is a passenger and the other is the
skipper.  The passenger is a business man who desperately wanted to
get to the other side quickly and asked the skipper to paddle as fast
as he can possibly paddle.  The motive of the skipper is ofcourse to
earn as much money as he could, so he is more then happy to oblige to
this wealthy businessman.  Standing on the shore observing the boat
were 2 other people.  One is a very old wise man and the other is a
guy named "Mr. Troublemaker".  Mr Troublemaker, true to his name,
asked the old wise man, "There is no doubt that the paddle hitting the
water with such force will kill some fishes.  Who is then *more* at
sin for the death of the fishes- is it the skipper who actual killed
the fishes or is it the businessman who paid the skipper to do it?"
Mr. TroubleMaker then had a very satisfying and evil grin on his face
because he though his question had stumbled the old wise man.  Instead
the old wise man calmly responded, "Neither, because the motive of the
businessman is to cross the river and the motive of the  skipper is to
make money.  Neither had the intention of killing the fishes.
Instead, *you* are the one who is sinned for the death of the
fishes... because if *you* did not deliberately bring up this idea of
dead fishes under water, then no one would even know nor care and
everyone would be happily on their way."

Thanks,
Ben