In the center of a certain village there was a special tree, a healing tree. All who ate of the fruit of the tree were healed from their ailments, from broken bones and lethal cancers to bug bites and bruises. The people of the village were divided as to who should have access to the tree. Some felt that the tree was for everyone so that all who so desired could be healed. Others felt that the tree was intended only for them and a select few "outsiders" who they deemed worthy of healing. Regardless of how the villagers felt about the tree, the good news of its healing qualities spread far and wide. Visitors came from all around to eat of its fruit. If a visitor chanced to run into an "all are welcome" villager, they need only to ask and they would be brought directly to the tree. If they chanced to encounter an "only the elite" villager, they would be greeted with equal kindness until they asked about the tree, at which point they would be thrown out of the village! Try as they might, the "elite" villagers could not keep all outsiders away from the tree. In addition to being helped by the "all are welcome" villagers, some visitors would simply sneak their way to the healing tree and steal away with its fruit. The more that was taken from the tree, the more that it produced, and in that way nothing was lost, only gained. Knowing that some "outsiders" were accessing the tree and being healed without their consent, the "elite" villagers reasoned with themselves that either a few outsiders really did belong and that they just didn't know it, or they reasoned that they weren't really being healed. In time, the villagers who wanted to ostracize the outsiders from the tree became so wrapped up in their crusade that they neglected to go to the tree for their own needs, even to the point of death!