One night when the whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house of a washer man.
The washer man was fast asleep but the donkey and the dog were awake.
The dog decided not to bark since the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson.
The donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn't bark, the donkey will have to do something himself.
The dog did not change his mind and the donkey started braying loudly.
Hearing the donkey bray, the thief ran away, the master woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night for no reason.
Moral of the story: One must not engage in duties other than his own.
Now take a new look at the same story.
The washer man was like a typical top management corporate guy.
He had the fundas of looking at the bigger picture and thinking out of the box.
He was convinced that there must be some reason for the donkey to bray in the night.
He walked outside a little and did some fact finding, applied a research approach, figured out from the ground realities that there was a thief who broke in and the donkey only wanted to alert him about it.
Looking at the donkey's extra initiative and going beyond the call of the duty, he rewarded him with lot of hay and other perks and the donkey became his favorite pet.
The dog's life didn't change much, except that now the donkey was more motivated in doing the dogs duties as well.
In the Appraisal the dog managed an "8".
The donkey was rated as "9".
Soon the dog realized that the donkey is taking care of his duties and he can enjoy his life sleeping and lazing around.
The donkey had to live up to his already high performance standards.
Soon he was over burdened with work and always under pressure and now is looking for a switch....
Moral of the story-Remains the same- "One must not engage in duties other than his own"
Disclaimer: All characters in the story are not at all imaginary. Any resemblance to person living or dying of work is purely intentional.
(Anonymous)