The Story of Three Monks

From the time immemorial, unraveling the complexities of human psychology has been a challenge. One classic example of such intriguing phenomena is the ancient Chinese proverbial story of three monks. The story underlines a thought provoking fact that "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water." Let us first hear the story and then we will try to find out the underlying reasons that lead to such human behaviors.

The Protagonists

The Story

A young monk Amar lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has one daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. One day another monk Akbar comes to the temple. Amar tries to share the job with Akbar, but the carry pole is only long enough for one bucket. The arrival of a third monk Anthony prompts everyone to expect that someone else will take on the chore. Consequently, no one fetches water though everybody is thirsty. At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candleholder, leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. Since then they understand the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.


Delving Deeper

Scenario I: One Monk – Amar

Amar carries two buckets of water alone with the help of a wooden pole.

Outcome: He gets tired and falls asleep while praying at night.

Scenario II: Two Monks – Amar and Akbar

Amar and Akbar carry one bucket of water together. Amount of water hauled is halved so does the effort required in hauling.

Innovation: They mark the midpoint of the wooden pole with the help of a scale. This makes them share the load equally thus fosters a harmonious relation between the two.

Outcome: They don't get much tired. They pray for a considerable time before they fall asleep.

Scenario III: Three Monks – Amar, Akbar and Anthony

When a fire breaks out at the temple, the three of them unite and start working together. They first divide the work suited to their individual capabilities. Amar, being young and agile draws buckets of water over the pulley. Akbar, being tall and fast carries the two buckets of water to the temple. Anthony, the fattest and the slowest monk pours the water on the blazing fire.

Innovation: They employ a pulley which reduces the effort in pulling up water to a greater extent and makes the process fast.

Outcome: Fire is extinguished with the least effort. A permanent solution for water replenishment in temple is found.


A tabular form will help in the comparative study of the three scenarios:

Dimension	Scenario I	Scenario II	Scenario III
Number of people	1	2	3
Effort required	High	Low	Negligible
Buckets of water hauled	2	1	Many
Productivity	Low	High	Very high
Communication	Nil	Direct - Personal	Indirect  & Instantaneous
Task role	Independent	Dependent	Highly Dependent
Work changes	-	Midpoint Identification	Innovative work practices
Work life	Difficult	Easy	Fun
Philosophy of Work life	Work for Death. Protestant Work Ethic	Work to Live	Work - Fun - Moksha
Human nature	Theory X	Theory Y	Theory Z

My Learnings

The story upheld the philosophy of “United we stand, divided we fall”. After the arrival of Akbar, Amar and Akbar readily started to share the load as it was the best choice they had to haul water with minimum effort. But as soon as Anthony came into picture, their attitude changed completely. Reason being the work required two people and no one wanted to volunteer. Each of them wanted the other two to do the work so that he can rest at the temple. The outcome was that the stored water at temple dwindled soon and the three monks were left with no choice but to stay thirsty. The status quo continued until a fire broke up at the temple. Realizing the need for prompt coherent action, the three monks decided to cooperate and started working together in order to extinguish the fire.

We see how human behavior changes in different situations. People want to minimize their effort when they are bound to work. They do not want to put effort at all when they have a choice to pass the buck to someone else. We also learned the relation between effort and productivity, role of team work in reaching desired goals and importance of innovation in achieving excellence. The three monks story is not just a light-hearted tale for children but it has great learning value even for the grown ups. It gives us an insight into the enigmatic human behaviour and throws light on some very important management concepts.

Kiran
Roll No. 76
IM 19, Section B