A cobbler lived in a large village and he was the only cobbler in town, so he was responsible for repairing the boots of everybody else. However, he didn’t have time to repair his own boots. This wasn’t a problem at first, but over time, his boots began to deteriorate and fall apart.
While he worked feverishly on the boots of everyone else, his feet got blisters and he started to limp. His customers started to worry about him, but he reassured them that everything was OK.
However, after a few years, the cobbler’s feet were so injured that he could no longer work and no-one’s boots got repaired. As a consequence, soon the entire town started to limp in pain, all because the cobbler never took the time to repair his own boots.