Two Chances

I was told a pretty funny anecdote today at work. After putting a case of wine in the main cellar at the restaurant, one of my coworkers warned me to "keep my elbows in" when I went in there. I asked him why, and he said that one of the first times he went in, his elbow brushed up against a wine bottle and it shattered on the ground. He then shyly approached the owner of the restaurant with the news and was told that "mistakes happen" and to clean it up and try not to do it again.

This was not the reaction that the guy was expecting.

A few months later, the same guy went in to the cellar and again brushed up against a bottle, breaking it. When he went to clean it up, the owner threatened to cut his fingers off. This time he was visibly angry.

Julius Caesar said to the senate upon his return that everyone is forgiven, even those who fought against him; however, Rome will not forgive anyone a second time. Julius wasn't ruthless, ruthless would be killing all of the betrayers after the first time. He understood that the first betrayal was a mistake, but the second one would be conscious.

I thought some more about chances, and realized that we were given three of them far more often than we were given two. Rumplestiltskin gives the princess three days to guess his name; baseball gives batters three strikes; the boy cried wolf three times.

Why three? Why is it acceptable to fail twice if you can only succeed once? "You fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." That's it; that's all. One failure, one success.

Rooted in tradition, religion and history, three is a nice number. When it comes to betrayal, mistakes and chances, two is much better.