The butcher

Once there was a man in a small town who decided that he wanted to be a butcher, so he bought a small store and started his own butcher shop. It was a very modest store, consisting of only a couple display cabinets, a meat grinder, and a few shelves in the refrigerator. This man quickly became known all over town as the best butcher around. He eventually was getting so much business that he had to expand his store. Delighted, the butcher purchased a larger location with more display cabinets, larger kitchen space, and a much more spacious refrigerator with room to have many shelves.

His business only kept growing from here. People were coming from all over the state and the country to visit him and try some of his delicious meat. Soon, he was able to purchase exotic meat from all over the world. People would come in and eat meat from an animal that they had never heard of. The butcher shop grew ever more popular.

The butcher was of course very proud of all he had accomplished. He could see all of his hard work paying off. He was especially proud of these unique meats that he was able to purchase. To ensure that these meats were as fresh as possible, he would put them high up on the shelves in his refrigerator.

One day, he received a letter in the mail. It was an invitation to the largest butcher's contest in the world. The butcher was very excited, but was worried when he saw the price to enter the contest: all contestants would have to prepare their very best and most exotic meat, but if you lost, you must give up all the meat in your shop.

Conflicted, the butcher began walking around his shop. He looked at the display cabinets that he had worked for years to earn, he looked at his kitchen with all sorts of meat processing equipment, and finally, he went into his refrigeration room. He looked around at all he had worked so hard to earn. There were thousands of dollars of meat in the room. He looked up to the shelves containing the meat that he would use in the competition. After much personal conflict, he walked to the shelves underneath. He looked down at the invitation. He would have to give up everything he had worked for if he lost.

But the butcher had faith in his abilities. People had always told him that his meat was the best they had ever had. He looked up at these exotic meats. He had made up his mind.

He reached out his arm to grab a slab of meat he had been saving for something special. With arm stretched out, he suddenly paused. He glanced up at the meat, feeling like it was a million miles away. Suddenly, he dropped his arm and stormed out of the refrigerator, shouting, "I can't do it! The steaks are too high!"