A rich man wanted to harvest the largest fruit crop. He sent out his servants and said, “Go! Do nothing else but buy fields and plant seeds!” The servants went out and bought all the land they could find, and they planted all the seeds they had.
But when the harvest came, the servants returned with only a few fruits. The rich man scolded his servants for not returning a good harvest. Then a wise servant said, “While we were busy buying fields and planting seeds, no one was tending the fields. The seeds sprouted but died because they were overcome by weeds, rocks and the dry soil.”
The rich man was indignant over the wise servant’s response. He said, “Didn’t you know you should have tended the fields and watered the crops and removed the rocks while you were planting?”
The servant responded, “Sir, you told us to only buy fields and plant seeds. If you had told us to tend the fields and water the crops we would have done so. But you told us to do nothing but buy fields and plant seeds. Besides, few of us know how to tend the fields.”
So the rich man lost all of his money because he had to sell the fields to pay for the servant’s labor.