Once upon a time, there was a donkey drover. Like all donkey drovers, he made his living by having the donkey carry loads of goods from one place to another. Unlike other donkey drovers, he was a businessman ahead of his time. He did a complete P&L on his business and determined that his income came from the loads that the donkey carried and his expenses were primarily feed for the beast.
Once he discovered this, he came up with a brilliant plan to maximize profits: he would increase the loads and decrease the feed, maximizing his income and minimizing his expenses. So he did. The donkey, who actually had a reasonably good gig and might even have been somewhat proud of his status, tried harder and harder to carry the growing loads and only complained a bit about the shrinking manger (which he supplemented by eating weeds where he could find them.)
The drover, reviewing his books, saw that his business was prospering. Booming, in fact. So he continued the experiment while dreaming of riches.
Until the donkey died.
