Once, there was a king with a large court and numerous courtiers. Each courtier claimed to be the most sincere and even ready to sacrifice their life for the king. The king believed them. One day, a sanyasi came to the king. The king boasted that no king had ever had more devoted courtiers than he did. The sanyasi smiled and said he wanted to perform a great sacrifice that would extend the king’s reign for a very long time. All the courtiers cheered the idea and competed with one another to describe the great efforts they were ready to make to ensure the sacrifice was a success.
The sanyasi asked the king to have a tank dug. When it was done, he told the king to ask his courtiers to fill the tank with milk. That night was amavasya, a no-moon night. The sanyasi asked that each of the courtiers come to the tank in the dead of night, alone. Unseen by anyone, each should pour a pitcher of milk into the tank. The courtiers replied that this was a very small task and that they could do much more for the king. In the darkness of the night, each of the courtiers emptied his pitcher into the tank.
The next morning, the sanyasi asked the king to go and inspect the tank. When he reached there, the king was shocked to see the tank full of plain water. The sanyasi explained that each of the courtiers thought that there would be so many pitchers of milk poured into the tank that his water would not be detected.
If we are honest, most of us have acted like the courtiers at least once. Have we not seen trash lying around and walked past, thinking that someone else will pick it up? Or, while working on a group project, have we not tried to take it easy, assuming that others will do the hard tasks?
In psychology, this behaviour is called the ‘bystander effect’. It comes from the phenomenon in which a single witness to a road accident will quickly come to the aid of the victim, but when a large crowd gathers at the scene, none of them may do anything, assuming that someone else will step in. Being aware of this tendency is the biggest step towards breaking the cycle. Otherwise, if we all assume that our small choice will not make a difference, the entire group can fail together, like the courtiers.