Who Moved My Cheese? is a fable that became extremely popular in management circles. When I read it I found it very interesting that such a shallow story would reach the popularity that this one got. It was, no doubt, well marketed, but that cannot account for the long time it spent on the New York Time's bestseller list. It is, in any case, worth a read. Very small, feels sort of like reading the menu in an American restaurant, and teaches a big deal about the people that hailed it so much.

What follows is my version of what actually happened in the maze.

Once, long ago in a land far away, there was a maze inhabited by littlepeople, who were as small as mice but looked and acted like people today. There had been mice living in the maze at one time, but they had been killed by the littlepeople, who didn't want to share with the mice the Cheese that nourished them and made them happy.Two of the littlepeople living in the maze were Hum and Haw. They were good friends. They met every morning and went together to Cheese Station C, where they performed their Dance and got the Cheese which, they felt, would help them be happy and successful. They knew that their Dance helped produce the Cheese, but they did not fully comprehend how. They knew how to perform their Dance, though, and this was not a small feat. They had learnt the Dance from their parents, and they had grown to be proud of it.

Shadow was another littlepeople, who lived in another maze. Hum and Haw had never seen Shadow, but they knew that he existed and that he was in control of Cheese Station C. Some littlepeople said that Shadow was just like them, with their worries and fears. But Hum and Haw knew that Shadow was powerful, although they didn't really understand what gave him power over them. They didn't talk much about Shadow, and when they did what they said changed with their mood. Sometimes they respected him and sometimes they despised him. Sometimes they thought that Shadow was powerful because he was smarter than them, sometimes they thought that he was just lucky.

Hum and Haw went every day to Cheese Station C, danced, and got some of the Cheese they somehow helped to produce. Sometimes they didn't really dance much, and sometimes they had to dance longer than usual. They could, however, count on the Cheese, which made them feel safe. They had learnt to rely on it, and they expected that Cheese Station C would keep going forever. They felt that they were getting from Cheese Station C the kind of Cheese that they needed, and they had great expectations for the future.

One day they were told that they were not allowed to dance in Cheese Station C any more. Shadow had decided, for some reason that they could not understand, to move the production of Cheese from Cheese Station C to another Cheese Station somewhere. This decision unexpectedly left them without their supply of Cheese, and without a place to perform their Dance. Their plans for the future broke down. They were sad. They had learnt to rely on Cheese Station C and to depend on their daily routine, and now that was over. Worst of all, they feared failure.

They felt lost, lacking a reference. For many days they did nothing. They would meet every morning and walk around the maze, talking about Cheese Station C, and about Shadow, and about their lifes. They felt the victims of a treason. They felt they were left behind.

Eventually the wounds started to heal, and there was less and less talk about Shadow and Cheese Station C. They started to visit other Cheese Stations in the parts of the maze that they knew, hoping to rebuild their life. But they found that none of the Stations were interested in their Dance. Things had changed in the Cheese Stations around, and the Dance they had so painfully learnt did not seem to be valued any more.

This realization was an even harder blow to Hum and Haw than loosing their place in Cheese Station C. Hum and Haw were the performers of their Dance, that's what they were. Not being able to do their Dance shattered the very foundation of their selves. Their mood became so gloomy that they did not walk around the maze together any more. They would just stay at their homes.

One night Haw had a dream. In his dream there was a poor fellow inside a miserable hut. His face was wrinkled, not so much from old age as from many hardships. There were fleas and lice living on him, and his clothes were old and broken. The man had just returned to the hut, and had found that all his possessions (a cooking pot and a pair of sandals) had been stolen. The man was sitting on a stone. He reached for an old piece of paper and a coal, and wrote:

The thief
Left it behind---
The moon at the window

Haw could see the man's face very well, and he felt surprised, for it didn't show anger nor joy, sorrow nor happiness. There was nothing to it, and that was what Haw found surprising. As Haw started to wake up he noticed a strange feeling across his body. It was as if everything was in place. It had been somehow induced by his dream, but it was a very physical sensation indeed. He did not remember having had this feeling before, but it was in some strange way not new to him.

That day Haw felt well as he had not felt for as long as he could remember. He tried to explain the story to Hum, but he could not share his feelings. That night Haw went to sleep hoping that his dreams would bring the man back, but it didn't happen. By next day the comforting feeling had faded away, but the dream and the old man were still in Haw's mind.

Not long after having his dream Haw decided to move along. He thought that he wanted to find a Cheese Station somewhere where he could perform his Dance again and get Cheese, and that's what he told Hem, hoping that he would follow. But Hem wanted to stay. He thought that he would eventually be admitted into one of the Cheese Stations around.

As Haw walked away leaving the area of the maze that he knew, he was feeling confused. As much as Cheese had been his life's pursuit for as long as he could remember, he realized that he had not been thinking much about it in later times.

Haw spent a long time on his way through the maze. He found some Cheese here and there, but he could not get back to the old ways of performing his Dance in a Cheese Station.

One day his wandering took him back to the neighborhood of Cheese Station C, and he visited his old friend Hem. He learnt that Shadow had lost the control of Cheese Station C, and it was said that he was himself looking for Cheese. As it turned out, Shadow also had his own Shadows. Cheese Station C was producing Cheese again, and Hem had found his way back. He had learnt another dance, much simpler than their old Dance, and he was getting Cheese.

But Haw felt uneasy talking to Hem. His eyes were sad. Their conversation was not as open and spontaneous as it had always been.

Hem's life was indeed very different from what it had been in the old days. He did perform a dance and he got Cheese, but the feeling of safety was gone. He was now painfully aware that his place at Cheese Station C was not permanent, and Shadow's shadow was often in his dreams. And he had had to give up his Dance.

Haw was depressed when he left his friend's house. As he was walking away, a thought came to his mind. He wrote it on a wall:

Having Cheese
Does Not
Necessarily Make You Happy

Haw went back to the maze. He kept wandering around, but now he was very aware that he was not looking for cheese any more. He was getting old, and he often felt weak and tired.

One day Haw was so weak that he stopped in a remote corner of the maze and sat down. Before long he was sleeping, and he had another dream. He saw the old man again, sitting on a stone inside a hut. It was cold and outside the rain was pouring. The man had just come in, and he was soaked. There was no fire, and nothing to light it on with. The man took a piece of paper and wrote:

On rainy days,
The monk Ryokan
Feels sorry for himself

Haw never woke up from his dream.

Ryokan (1758-1831) was a Zen monk who lived in a hut on the slopes of Mt. Kugami. The translations of the haiku quoted here come from R H Blyth's "Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics".