The Village Well

A village shared a well. The aquifer refilled slowly — enough for every family if each drew two buckets a day.

But one family started drawing three. “One extra bucket won’t matter,” they thought. Seeing this, a second family drew three. Then a third.

No single family caused the shortage. Each family’s extra bucket was insignificant. But thirty families drawing thirty extra buckets drained the aquifer faster than it could recover.

By summer, the well was dry. Every family suffered, including those who had only ever drawn two buckets.