Once upon a time a wise and thoughtful craftsman made a new
electric adding machine. It was very complex with many gears and
levers and wheels, and it did amazing things, always adding up the
numbers correctly. So the craftsman sold it to a businessman for
many thousands of dollars. All the parts inside the new adding
machine felt good about being so valuable. They worked hard and
happily all day, and often talked about how useful they were to
the businessman.
But one day a spring noticed a little nut just sitting on
the end of a shaft. The spring pulled at the lever he was
attached to and pointed. Soon the whole works knew. "You lazy
little nut," said a spinning gear, "why don't you get to work?"
"But I am working," said the nut. "Holding on is my job."
"That's stupid," yelled a cam. "I don't believe our maker put
you here. You just sneaked in to steal some of our glory. Why don't
you get out?"
"Well," said the nut, "I'm sure our maker knew what he was
doing, and that I do serve a purpose. I hold on as tightly as I
can." But all the machinery began to squeal and abuse the nut so
violently that he felt very sad and began to doubt himself.
"Maybe I am useless," he thought. He appealed to the shaft he was
threaded onto.
"Look, kid," the shaft told him, "I've got plenty of other
parts holding on to me. I shouldn't have to support you, too."
So finally the little nut decided to unscrew himself and go
away. He dropped off the shaft and fell through a hole in the
bottom of the machine. "Good riddance," said the motor.
"Yeah, good riddance," all the other parts agreed.
Rather quickly the nut was forgotten and things went on as they
had for awhile. But in a few hours, the shaft began to feel funny.
At first he began to vibrate. Then he started sliding and slipping.
He called for help to the other parts attached to him, but they
could do nothing. Presently the shaft fell completely out of his
mounting hole, causing many levers and gears and cams to slip out
of alignment and crash against each other, and forcing the whole
machine to grind to a halt with an awful noise. The motor tried
his best to keep things going--he tried so hard that he bent many
of the parts--and then as he tried even harder, he burned himself
out. "This is all the fault of that little nut," the ruined parts
all agreed.
"I'll give ya three bucks for it," said the junk man to the
office manager.