Story about communication: Who is to be blamed? Karma knows

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer and a baker who did business with each other for many years. They lived in separate small towns, but they and the people from both towns lived like they were all from a single tight-knit community. There was a strong bond and sense of trust between the townspeople, and when a person from one town needed help everyone came to help, even if they were from the neighboring town. Everything was perfect until one day the baker accused the farmer of swindling him. The baker was so angry that he made a big show out of this in front of everyone and made a public announcement to the farmer, “We used to trust each other. But now I see that we can’t. And who is to be blamed? It is you the farmer, who has planted the seeds of dishonesty in our two communities. How many, besides me have you cheated?” From that day on people started to look at each other with suspicion even though they didn’t know how the farmer swindled the baker.

After a couple of days, the time finally came when the baker got his spotlight in the court. The judge asked the baker to tell what happened between him and the farmer. The baker started, “Like every day before for years I have brought a pound of bread to the farmer and in return, I was supposed to get a pound of butter. But I for some time now was skeptical if it really was a pound. So I decided to weight the butter and your honor, it saddens me to say that the butter was no were close to a pound. Your honor, I believe that we cannot let this kind of behavior go unpunished. We don’t know for how long this has been going on and how many of us has the farmer swindled like this. I demand justice not just for me but for us all!”

The judge was visibly touched by the harsh speech of the farmer and confirmed that behavior like this will not be tolerated. The judge confronted the baker who replied, “Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. So if you are looking who is to be blamed about the weight, it is the baker, your honor. I have always honored the deal we had, a pound for a pound. If he gave me less I gave him the same.” After that, the judge and everyone knew who is to be blamed, who is to be trusted and who not.