The Miller's Choice

A miller's wheel could grind twenty sacks of grain per day.

During harvest, farmers brought fifty sacks daily.

The miller tried to grind them all. The wheel, overworked, broke. For two weeks, no grain was ground at all.

The next miller set a limit: twenty sacks, first come. The rest waited for tomorrow.

"Unfair," farmers said.

"Predictable," the miller replied. "Twenty sacks ground is better than fifty sacks waiting and a broken wheel."