The Parable of the Acres

A man was going on a journey. He first called his workers and entrusted to them his land. To one he gave five acres, to another two acres, to another one acre, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

The worker who had received the five acres went at once to graze rotating sheep, goats and chickens, doubling the land’s value, caring well for the animals, and providing neighbors with healthy, delicious eggs, milk, etc.

Likewise he who had the two acres more than doubled the land’s value by cultivating an abundance of naturally productive perennial plants.

But he who had received the one acre went and dug in the ground and tilled the land aggressively to extract maximum short-term profit with annual Roundup-resistant, GMO, government-subsidized cash crops. He also kept tons of miserable, sickly chickens in cages. He used the profits to buy more land, which he then likewise abused.

Now after a long time the boss of those workers came back and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five acres came forward, showing a handful of rich, black soil, saying, “Boss man, you delivered to me five acres; here I have made them worth twice as much as before.”

The owner said to him, “Well done, good and faithful worker. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you in charge of much more. Celebrate with me.”

And he also who had the two acres came forward, showing how rich and fruitful his soil was, saying, “Boss man, you delivered to me two acres; here I have made them worth twice as much as before.”

The owner said to him, “Well done, good and faithful worker. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you in charge of much more. Celebrate with me.”

The he who had received the one acre came forward, saying, “So, what had happened was, I knew you were a hard man, reaping what you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid, and I went and tilled and worked the land aggressively and earned a lot of these paper dollars printed by the government, and used them to get more land to earn more money. Look at all these government subsidies; here I have what’s yours.”

But the boss answered him, “You careless and short-sighted worker! You knew that I reap what I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have at least invested in someone who would enrich the land, and at my coming I should have received my land improved and made more bountiful.”

And he fired the careless worker, abandoning him to a humiliating existence of surviving on government food stamps for the rest of his life.