A Fable.

Once upon a time in a quiet kingdom located high in the mountains there lived a group of people who knew themselves to be peace-loving and generous.  Some would even say they were generous to a fault.  Each day they would greet each other and comment on how peaceful and friendly they were. 

The air and water in the kingdom were sparkling clean and the grass had no weeds to disturb the lush green of the open fields.  Even the animals were gentle.  The sheep were guarded by tame wolves (and only occasionally would one or two sheep wander off and be lost).  The cattle, who grazed on the lush green fields, gave the sweetest milk anyone had ever tasted.

The kingdom was so remote even its existence was virtually unknown to the rest of the kingdoms in the distant lands.  One day a stranger happened to wander into the valley and seeing the gleaming castle decided to stop and chat with the people.

The stranger, dirty and ragged from his journey, looked far different from the people of the kingdom.  He was rough-hewn and spoke with a strange accent.  In the course of meeting many people, he asked questions about how things were done, and why things were as they were.  He wondered aloud whether the kingdom was actually as wonderful as it seemed, or was it all an illusion that would come tumbling down at some point in the future?

Suddenly, the leaders of the peace-loving kingdom were afraid this stranger would destroy the harmony they had worked so hard achieve and feared the questions this stranger was asking would only lead to dissension and bitterness among the people they ruled.  So, they came up with a plan to destroy this stranger, but it had to be done in such a way that all the people would believe he had destroyed himself because they were, after all, a peace-loving and generous kingdom.

First with whispers, and then with an open disdain they set out to vilify the outsider.  Soon, there were rumors that if the stranger didn’t leave violence would surely occur.  Fearing these threats the stranger departed in the middle of the night to continue his wanderings, but he left behind a kingdom where more and more people began to question whether the kingdom was really as peace-loving and virtuous as the king had promised it would be.  Could the wolves really be trusted to guard the sheep?