A grain as big as a Hens Egg Written by Leo Tolstoy in 1886, this parable takes us back to a time when land and what it yielded, was free for everyone. Should one live by one's own labour and be content with it, or eye what others produce? One day some children found in a ravine, a thing shaped like a grain of corn, with a groove down the middle, but as large as a hen's egg. A traveller passing by saw the thing, bought it from the children for a penny, and taking it to town sold it to the king as a curiosity. The king called together his wise men, and told them to find out what the thing was. The wise men pondered and could not make head or tail of it, till one day, when the thing was lying on a windowsill, a hen flew in and pecked at it till she made a hole in it, and then everyone saw that it was a grain. The wise men went to the king, and said, "It is a grain of corn." The king was surprised and ordered the learned men to find out when and where such corn had grown...