ONCE, long ago in a land far away, there lived four little characters who ran through a
Maze looking for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. Two were mice, named
"Sniff" and "Scurry" and two were Little people, their names were "Hem" and "Haw."
They all shared something in common: every morning, they each put on their jogging suits and running shoes, left their little homes, and raced out into the Maze looking for their favourite cheese.
Finally, Sniff, Scurry, Hem and Haw all discovered what they were looking for. They each found their own kind of cheese one day at the end of one of the corridors in cheese Station C.
Every morning after that, the mice and the Little people dressed in their running clothes and went to Cheese Station C.
Sniff and Scurry continued to wake early every day and race through the Maze, always following the same route. When they realized that the cheese was running low, they moved on to find new cheese.
In the beginning Hem and Haw also raced toward Cheese Station C every morning. But after a while, they awoke each day a little later, dressed a little slower, and walked to Cheese Station C.
Hem and Haw didn’t realize that the cheese was low, until one day the cheese was no longer there. "What! No Cheese?". "Who moved my Cheese?" he shouted. "It's not fair!" They sat and contemplated about what to do. They were afraid to look for cheese elsewhere. They were afraid of change.
While Sniff and Scurry had quickly moved on, Hem and Haw continued to “hem and haw”. Haw started to get depressed. He had made future plans based on this Cheese.
The next day Hem and Haw left their homes, and returned to Cheese Station C again, where they still expected, somehow, to find their Cheese. But the situation hadn't changed; the Cheese was no longer there. The Little people didn't know what to do. Hem and Haw just stood there, immobilized like two statues.
Haw eventually was able to see what he was doing, laughed at himself, faced his fears and followed Sniff and Scurry into the maze in search of new cheese, while Hem remained behind, thinking that somehow, someway, his cheese will someday be replaced.
Soon, Haw realized that he was enjoying the change of pace and that the hunt really wasn’t so bad. So he understood and embraced change, he wrote what he had learned on the wall, hoping the signs would help Hem find his way. Finally, he met Sniff and Scurry in the new cheese station they had discovered.
The story ended with Hem realizing that when you can read the writing on the wall, you can do well in changing times.
Moral of the story
