Greed starts with one flower and ends with an empty garden. The biggest threat to prosperity is not scarcity—it is people who hoard abundance and call it ownership. Lucy learned the hard way: guarding everything can leave you with nothing. Cooperation built more honey than fear, lies, and territorial greed ever could. The real danger is not lack of nectar. It is the selfish bee who blocks access, hoards resources, and discovers too late that power can vanish overnight.
Ariel spent the entire day searching for nectar and found
almost nothing. Frustrated, she blamed Queen Agnes for enjoying palace comfort
while worker bees struggled in the field. A crown that never sweats rarely
understands the weight of labor.
Hope appeared when Ariel discovered a nectar-rich flowering
shrub. Just as she moved in, Lucy, a rival worker bee, claimed ownership of the
entire shrub and even admitted she used fake "Beware of Dogs" signs
to scare competitors away.
Lucy's greed mirrored real-world resource hoarding. During
the 1973 oil crisis, a few oil-producing nations restricted supply, causing
fuel shortages and economic pain worldwide. When a few control abundance, many
suffer unnecessary hardship.
Before Lucy could enjoy her monopoly, a child trimmed away
much of the shrub. Her "private kingdom" vanished within minutes.
History is full of similar lessons: powerful monopolies often collapse when
unexpected forces change the rules of the game.
Faced with loss, Lucy finally agreed to share. Working
together, the two bees collected more nectar than either could alone. Their
success echoed a timeless truth: cooperation often creates more wealth than
competition driven by fear, greed, and territorial pride.
If you’re
looking for something different to read, some of the titles in my “Brief Book Series” is available on Google Play Books. You can also read them
here on Google Play, or in
Barnes & Noble bookstore: Brief Book Series.
