Once upon a time, there were ten little piglets. They came together from all around with a shared passion - the passion to build a beehive. It wouldn’t just be any beehive, no - they wanted to build not the largest, but the best beehive in the world, attracting bees from everywhere!
But soon the piglets figured out that this was difficult. They would have to trade materials from the nearby town, in exchange for honey. But the piglets didn’t have much. Luckily for them, many many of their friends, who also enjoy beehives, came along and brought them honey. They brought as much as they could spare wishing them luck in creating a wonderful, lively beehive.
The piglets were happy. They accepted the precious gifts, and carefully traded it in town for the resources needed to build. They knew how precious the honey was, and they started building, day and night, full of passion and full of dreams for how wonderful the beehive will be one day.
However, while the piglets were very motivated, they were also very young and naive. The beehive came along, it was around a third finished. The piglets were proud of the foundation, but certainly this foundation wouldn’t attract any bees. And slowly, the piglets ran out of honey, and their friends had no more honey to spare.
So the piglets were sad. Their dream of making the most amazing beehive now seemed impossible. But the piglets promised to make the beehive to their friends. All the honey that was given to them was to help the beehive. So what now?
Luckily, a goose came along. The goose heard the story of the beehive, and the goose seemed to also share passion for beehives. So the goose talked to the piglets, “what a most magnificent beehive you have here. Do you want me to help you? I really like beehives too, and I have friends who do too”
The piglets were happy, their hard work finally appreciated. So they went with the goose to talk to its friend, the dog. The dog said “I, too, appreciate beehives. I enjoy them so much, I will just give you some honey.” And the goose chimed in and said “and once your beehive is done, I will tell all the bees to visit your beehive”.
The piglets were happy, but also worried a bit. The goose and the dog seemed friendly, but surely they wanted something in return? “Just some honey”, they said. “We just want the honey back, and some more honey on top, so we can help others build more beehives in the future”. This doesn’t sound too bad, the piglets thought. They do like honey, but building an awesome beehive was more important than honey. So the piglets responded “this sounds fair to us, but we want to build our own beehive! It’s important that it’s our beehive, and that we can make it look like we want!”
The dog responded “Certainly. I have no interest in having a beehive, so it should be all yours. If you give me your beehive now, I’ll give it back to you once it’s completed. Just to be safe.“
The piglets, happy to be able to finish the beehive, agreed. Surely, once they show what an amazing beehive they can build, they will make more beehives together in the future.
So the piglets moved together, with a little bit of honey received. They rationed the honey very carefully, just enough for themselves for food and a bed, and the rest for beehive materials. Day and night, the piglets worked on the beehive. And it started to grow, and it became better and better, months after months.
One day, the goose stopped by, and said “The beehive turned out lovely! Look, you already have some room for bees even!”
The piglets were proud, and said “yes, but the beehive will be so much better when it’s finished!” And the goose sat down, and the piglets explained how magnificent the beehive will be in the future. The goose was astonished. It sounded like the most beautiful beehive that one could have. “Paint me a picture”, the goose said. “Paint me a picture of the beehive so I can imagine what it will be like.” The piglets, not very good with drawing, said they can try, but it will take a while. “No worries”, the goose said, “a picture will help me tell the story of your beehive. Everyone will love it!”
So the piglets, once again, agreed. What harm can a picture do? All the bees should know what the beehive will be once it’s finished. So all the piglets, not knowing any better, drew a picture. And, similar to the beehive, it was a beautiful picture. They gave the picture to the goose, and continued work on the beehive.
Soon, the goose and the dog returned. They’ve shown the picture to all the bees they know, they said, and everyone loved it! All the bees want to come, they said in excitement!
The piglets were worried. “This is just a picture”, they said, “the beehive is still not ready”. The goose responded “no worries, look, you can fit some bees here. And there. The bees are so excited, they just want to help with the beehive!”.
So the piglets were getting nervous. They needed the beehive as good as it can be. They worked even harder, they started sleeping at the beehive, and stopped doing anything else. They did not want to disappoint the bees.
Soon, the goose came back, and with it many many bees! Many more than they expected. The bees were following the picture, but once they saw the beehive, they were confused. It looked a little bit like in the picture. It certainly was an interesting beehive, but it wasn’t finished. The goose reassured the bees not to worry, it will soon be like in the picture. So the bees gave it a try, they tried to settle down in the bees nest, but it just didn’t fit. There was not enough space, it was missing bits and pieces in the inside, and it was just overall unfinished. Soon, many bees left. This was not the beehive they wanted. Some of them were angry, some of them were planning to visit it again in the future when it’s ready.
This was not what the piglets worked so hard for. They were disappointed and exhausted, but they were motivated: “If we finish the beehive, surely the bees will come back!” So they planned to ration the honey, again very carefully, and to get more friends to help them with their work!
“One second”, the goose said while opening the beehive, “surely I deserve some honey for bringing you all those bees!”. “One second”, the dog chimed in, “surely you understand that I need to give some honey to my friends, too!”
The piglets looked at what was left of the beehive in disbelief. “This is not enough!”, they said, “we need more honey for materials and more friends to help us work!”
“Over time, more bees will come, surely they will bring enough honey for that”, the goose and the dog responded.
Now the piglets were getting angry. Obviously, making the most amazing beehive was not what the dog and the goose had in mind. “We want our beehive back!” they shouted. But the dog responded “Of course. You must know that, right now, I really like your beehive. But if you work really really hard, I’m sure you can have your beehive back, sometime, in the future. I’m sure you noted the fine print?”. The piglets tried to negotiate, they tried to offer what they could to save their idea of the beehive, but nothing worked out.
So the piglets sat down. They talked. They discussed. It was clear that this beehive was not theirs any more, and that it would not become what it was supposed to be. So they were forced to leave behind their labor of many years, with a broken heart. They set forth towards the east for a new beginning - again with passion and again with hope, but this time hardened with experience.
