The Two Woodcutters

Two woodcutters worked neighboring forests. Each winter, they faced a choice: share firewood openly, or hoard it.

If both shared, they each had plenty — mixed hardwoods and softwoods made better, longer-burning fires. If one shared while the other hoarded, the hoarder lived like a king while the sharer froze. If both hoarded, they each survived, but barely.

Each year, fear won. Each year, both hoarded. Each year, both shivered through winters that could have been warm.

The tragedy was not that they couldn’t cooperate. It was that each one’s rational choice produced an irrational outcome for both.