The Elephant and The Blind Men

Once an elephant came to a small town.  People had read and heard of elephants but no one in the town had ever seen one.  Thus, a huge crowd gathered around the elephant, and it was an occasion for great fun, especially for the children.  Four blind men also lived in that town, and they also heard about the elephant.  They had never seen an elephant before, and were eager to find out about elephant.

Then, someone suggested that they could go and feel the elephant with their hands.  They could then get an idea of what an elephant looked like. The four blind men went to the center of the town where all the people made room for them to touch the elephant. Each of the blind men touched one part of the elephant that they are closest to. The blind men thought that they can assess the elephant by feeling what they are touching. One man grabbed the elephant’s trunk, and determined that he is clearly touching a snake. Another grabbed the tail, and concluded that it is a rope. The third, wrapped his arms around the leg, announced that it is clearly a tree. Last but not least, the fourth blind man ran his hands along the elephant’s side and determined that he had discovered a wall.

They sat for hours and argued, each one was sure that his view was correct.  Obviously, they were all correct from their own point of view, but no one was quite willing to listen to the others.  Finally, they decided to go to the wise man of the village and ask him who was correct.  The wise man said, “Each one of you is correct; and each one of you is wrong.   Because each one of you had only touched a part of the elephant’s body.  Thus you only have a partial view of the animal.  If you put your partial views together, you will get an idea of what an elephant looks like.”

Moral: Each one of us sees things exclusively within one’s point of view.  We should also try to understand other people’s points of view.  This will enable us to get a proper perspective on different situations and events.