The Clever Cobbler

Once upon a time in a small valley in California there was an old cobbler who started making the shiniest, most stylish and incredibly alluring shoes anybody had ever seen. Every person who saw and touched a pair became obsessed with having them. The cobbler had expected this and was able to charge an enormous amount of money for each pair. Every shoe shop in the land wanted to be the exclusive retailer for these fabulous shoes and was even willing to pay for the privilege.

Some of the people who wanted these shoes were used to being able to run in their old shoes and to wear them to play games. But the shoes were so shiny, comfortable and sexy that they forgot how important this was to them.

The news of the shoes travelled to far off lands where other people and shoes shops also yearned to get their hands on the fabled footwear. But in these far off lands everybody was able to run in their shoes. They didn't understand why they could not run in their new shoes. Many shoe shops refused to stock them as they said it was crazy to try and sell people shoes that they could only walk in.

The cobbler disagreed. He knew he could make any demands he wanted as the people were so desperate to wear his shoes and the shops were so desperate for the peoples business. He selected just a few shops who agreed to try and convince their customers that running was not all it was cracked up to be. Yes it was fast but it was really not very stylish and completely unnecessary.

The shops spent thousands and thousands of gold coins refitting their shops to sell the shiny but slow shoes and in convincing their clients that they really didn't need the other new shoes that they had ben trying to sell them just a few months before.

As time went by the cobbler became extremely rich as everybody forgot how nice it was to be able to run and play games and eventually forgot they ever did that at all. Just as everybody got used to their wonderful new shoes the cobbler called everybody to the town square for a proclamation. He announced that he had made a new pair that were sexier and more stylish than before. These new shoes would also let you run and play games and everybody applauded. How clever the cobbler was to invent shoes that could run. Everybody immediately paid him even more money for the better shoes and sung his praises.

Everybody forgot the other cobblers who had been making fast running shoes for years and all the things they had been able to do with them.