An old man was walking along a beach littered with starfish which
had been stranded by high tide, when he came across a young boy who was
picking up the dying fish one by one and throwing them back into the sea.

Perplexed, the old man approached the boy and said, “Son, there are thousands of fish here, as far as the eye can see. Even if you continued all day, you could not return them all to the sea. So why do you bother to save only a few?”

At first the boy did not reply but picked up another fish and threw it into the sea, before turning to the old man and saying with a smile, “You see, I saved that one!”
And then added,”If you were to help me we could save twice as many.”