The Advantage of Cooperation

[sirdarksol]

There is an old tale, quite possibly fictional, about the origin of the tonfa. It is said that a farming village was trying to turn the mill handle into a weapon, but the handle of the tonfa (the part that stuck into the millstone) could not handle the type of stress that weapon encountered, and would often pop out of the main piece, causing the weapon to fall apart. After much failure, a member of the farming village decided to go to a nearby fishing village to see if they had any answer to the problem.
This was a big deal, because farmers and fishers saw each other as "beneath" their own station. As such, there was a strong, somewhat bitter rivalry between the two groups of peasants. Still, this was an important thing, and the farmer thought it was worth swallowing his pride to do this.
And so, the farmer set out to the fishing village. He talked to one of the village craftsman, who thought for a moment before pulling out a peg. He shaved it to the proper size and pushed it into the tonfa. "That should do well. You are looking for the wood of a particular tree, the same tree that we use to plug holes in our boats. It stands up to the same type of stress that your weapon will stand up to, and does very well."
"I thank you for the help," the farmer said, "but I have to know, why did you help me so readily?"
"Only because, a couple of generations ago, someone from our village went to your village, looking for a way to make the keels for our boats, which would splinter every time the boat struck a coral outcropping. A craftsman in your village had the solution to that problem, and supplied it to my ancestors. I am merely returning the favor."