High up in the Himalayan mountains, there lived a famous sage. People from far away would walk up the difficult path in order to meet him. One day, a group of travelers went up the mountain to find this sage and seek out his wisdom. Upon reaching his home, they all greeted the sage. Each of them wanted to talk to him about their own problems in search of a solution. They started fighting among themselves over who would go first. The fighting among them grew loud and turned into chaos, with each of them insisting their problem was bigger and that they needed to talk to the sage first. The sage watched the commotion for a while and, seeing them come to no decision, finally shouted, “SILENCE!”
Everyone stopped yelling and became silent. The sage told them, “Sit on the ground in a circle and wait for a bit. I have a solution for you.”
After a few minutes, the sage came back with a pen and sheets of paper. He passed the paper and the pen to each one of them and placed a bowl in the middle. He instructed them to write down a problem that troubled them the most, fold the paper, and put it in the bowl.
Everyone started writing, and when they finished, the sage took the bowl and mixed up all the papers. Then he calmly handed the bowl to someone in the circle and instructed them to pass it around, pick up the top paper, and read the problem on it. Then you choose, make it your own, or take back your own problem
One by one, each person picked out a paper and read another person’s problems. When they read each paper, they became horrified. Each of them concluded that even their worst problem was not as bad as the other person’s. Within minutes, each person had exchanged their problems. And when they had their original paper in hand with the problem they had written, they felt grateful that it wasn’t as horrible as the others. They all thanked the sage and went on their way.