There was once a large valley with a river running through it. The villages and towns of the valley took their water from the river by building irrigation channels, each town and village in its own way, for its own fields.

Some of the towns and villages were very good at irrigation. Others weren't so good and frequently the village water experts found their fields either swamped or too dry.

Eventually, the villages and towns decided that it would be a good thing to build a big dam at the very top of the valley to control the flow of water for every town and village, large and small. It was a great effort to get the dam built and there were many squabbles between the large towns.

To ensure there would be no fighting in future over the amount of water everyone was getting, they gave the job of opening and closing the sluice gates to the cleverest irrigation experts from each town and village.

So, the dam was built and the water flowed through the whole valley. It seemed just right for the big towns and for their land, and for most villages. The land around one little village became very fertile indeed with a level of water that village had never got for itself before. All sorts of new crops and plants grew very fast. The villagers worked night and day to keep up with their good fortune.

The big towns, which hadn't noticed any difference in their water or crops, were mostly happy for the poor village, but a few of their people sneered, and others worried that the little village might be flooded.

One day, a representative of the valley co-operative council visited the little village, to praise it and to view some of the amazing new crops. But he told a meeting in the village hall that he was worried about flooding. Maybe they should build some pits to take the excess water.

Maybe they shouldn't plant so much. Perhaps they should think about sowing slower-growing crops. Maybe the village council should levy more taxes from the village farmers, or keep more of their seeds. He didn't tell them what to do, lest it should appear to be bad-mannered, coming from a visitor.

From the back of the hall, the village idiot shouted: "Why don't they just turn down the water a bit at the dam? Even our rickety old irrigation system could have done that!"

There were a few embarrassed snorts of laughter. The leader of the valley co-operative council explained that the dam was controlled by experts who could see the whole valley and all the towns and villages, and the experts had explained that the water level was just right for the whole valley.

"And anyway," he said, "we told the experts that we wouldn't interfere with their important dam job." The villagers knew the dam controllers had already told the little village's water expert that the level of water in the whole valley wouldn't be changed just for their village.

When the valley council leader left, the villagers began to wonder about the ideas he had given them. They had a feeling that they knew their own fields best, and the way the water flowed into them. They were sure the whole valley council couldn't know anything about their fields that they didn't know themselves.

They wondered whether the valley councillor had ever tried some of his ideas in his own town before he joined the valley council and before the dam was built. Some villagers said, unkindly, that the valley councillor's own town had been very bad at managing water and crops and work when he had been a leader of his town, and it was much better since.

They wondered why the valley council - and no one else - told them how much it would help the situation if the village kept more taxes and stored up more seeds. No one seemed to be able to say how much fewer crops would grow, or how much less the danger of flooding would be.

The villagers all wondered if anyone had ever solved the problem of too many crops and too much work with a whole new water supply. No other village seemed to have had such a problem before.

Late in the night, they decided they would try to solve only problems which they could have an effect on and do things they knew would work. They liked the new crops and the new growth. So, they forgot about the dam experts, since the dam experts paid very little attention to the village. They would try to use parts of fields they had not sown before.

They could build new channels to stop too much water going into one big area. They could stop their own squabbles and get working fast on the new fields and channels.

And what a good thing it was, they all said, to have the valley council leader remind them of this.

Oliver O'Connor is editor of the monthly publication, Finance.

E-mail: ooconnor@indigo.ie