The King and The Master Bridge Builders

A king decided that a bridge needed to be built over a river.

The river prevented his merchants from accessing a town that had a seaport that a rival kingdom was trying to use to benefit their growing merchant class.

The king could not decide (between his two master bridge builders) who should lead the project.

Both master bridge builders told the king not to worry - they knew what bridge needed to be built.

Each went to the opposite shore and started to order the supplies they needed.

But one builder thought a wooden bridge would be best.
The other thought a stone bridge would be best. 

When the supplies arrived both put their men to work.

It was only after several weeks (and much building) that they realized they had been building a different bridge.

Both started to blame each other for their lack of vision.

The king sent a duke to check on the progress of the bridge. 

The duke was put in charge of both builders. 

During the meeting both bridge builders blamed each other for the lack of unified vision. 

After listening to this for over an hour the duke raised his hand to silence both builders:

"The solution is simple - we will blame the workers."

Both builders agreed to this: they would be held responsible if they did not go along with this plan.

When the duke reported to the king that the bridge was not being built properly because the workers would not work hard the king was enraged:

"Kill every tenth worker - let them learn from this!"

The duke returned to the river and set up his opulent tent. 

As he and the two master bridge builders dined on the finest food (a gift from the king for a job well done) the general appeared and reported to the duke:

"My lord, the workers are being executed."