The Flour Mill

A village had a mill, a bakery, and a market — each depending on the one before.

One autumn, the miller fell ill for a week. Just a week.

But the bakery had kept only two days of flour. By day three, they had no bread.

The market, which drew customers mainly for bread, grew quiet. Vegetable sellers, seeing poor sales, stopped coming.

The miller recovered. But the bakery had lost its customers to a bakery in the next village. The vegetable sellers had found better markets. The mill, with no bakery buying flour, had no income.

A week's illness became a year's ruin.