The villagers had become accustomed to complaining about the same problems day in and day out.  Increasingly they took their problems and concerns to the village elder, a wise old fellow, who was renowned for his words of wisdom.

One day when a group of villagers came to the wise elder, once again complaining about people and events in the town, the elder sat them together while he told a joke.

The villagers listened intently and they roared in laughter.

After a couple of minutes, the elder repeated the joke to the assembled group. This time only a few of his audience chucked.  Next he told the joke a third time his audience looked perplexed and no one laughed.

The wise elder smiled at the assembled group and said.  So here is your lesson:

You can’t laugh at the same joke over and over.

So why are you always crying about the same problem?

Contributed by

Liz Paine

Director and Principal Consultant

Learning Insight

www.learninginsight.com.au