31st Oct, 2023
A hunter once lost his way deep inside the jungle while chasing a deer.
He used all of his navigation skills, but neither did he find any way out of the jungle nor could he find any food to eat for 3 days at a stretch.
He lost all hope & thought he would die of hunger. That’s exactly when an apple tree caught his eye. His happiness knew no bounds & he collected 10 apples to feed him for the rest of his stretch.
As he ate the first apple his joy knew no bounds and he just couldn’t stop feeling, grateful and blessed.
He profusely thanked life & thanked God for his bounty.
He could not believe his luck when he tasted the first apple; but he was less grateful while having the second apple and even less grateful when he had his 5th apple.
Somehow with each passing apple, the joy kept reducing drastically.
His enjoyment kept going down with each apple that he had & he even started throwing apples that did not taste good.
And then he also started complaining. He had taken for granted the gift of having found an apple tree in the middle of the jungle, after three days of wandering around with hunger.
In Economics this is called the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility.
It is actually the Law of Diminishing Gratitude.
In simple words – reducing value with each level of consumption & taking things for granted or let’s just call it the 10th Apple Effect.
It also represents our lack of appreciation for the gifts of life.
The Hunter represents all of us, and the Apple tree represents the gifts that life gives us.
The 10th apple is really as sweet as the 1st apple.
If the 10th apple fails to give us as much pleasure as the 1st one, there is nothing wrong with apple; but with the person enjoying the fruit.
All of us go through the 10th Apple Effect and we stop feeling grateful for our blessings.
Instead of complaining about the 10th Apple not tasting good, why not share the 10th Apple with those who need it.
The festive season is here.
Instead of collecting more gifts for ourselves & falling prey to the 10th Apple effect, Let’s share our ’10th Apple’ and care, let’s enjoy the joy of giving, let’s be grateful & stay blessed forever.