Whose stretch of road?

The car was speeding along the road to the countryside when it had to stop at an extremely bad stretch of road with deep holes. Everyone got out and stood looking for a way to get the car across safely. Strangely, the section they had just driven over was very good and quite new, meaning construction had only just finished. On the far side of the holes the road was also very fine and newly made. Only this short stretch of about 10 m was badly broken, full of deep holes, and dangerous to drive over. Nobody could work out why.
Perhaps the houses along the road were so used to travellers from afar stopping there and discussing it that nobody bothered to come out and explain. Two of the travellers went to ask a householder why construction had been left unfinished over such a short stretch. The householder explained that two contractors had built two sections of road, and under the contract the two sections were to meet at this spot. But after building exactly the length stated in the contract, they did not meet; a 10 m gap was still missing, and nobody was responsible for filling it. They had measured the finished road carefully and it was exact, so they stopped. Both sides stopped 10 m apart, since each had completed its contract. Because nobody built this short section, it had badly deteriorated, and passing over it was both hard and dangerous.
The 5 people in the car discussed it and decided to cancel their trip to the countryside to enjoy the forest and mountain scenery, and to spend the whole day dealing with this stretch of road. They contacted several places to call lorries to bring earth and stone to fill the deep holes. They ran to the market to buy shovels and hand rammers and came back to level the ground. At noon they bought instant noodles for a quick meal, then carried on levelling. They did not expect this broken stretch to swallow more than twenty loads of earth and stone. By late evening the job was done for the time being, the stretch of road was level, and vehicles could pass safely and easily. Only then did the 5 of them turn the car around and go back to the city. 🤝

The two construction companies had completed their contracts, but had not completed their conscience and ethics. They should have understood that if that short stretch were left alone, it would soon fall into disrepair and threaten everyone's road safety, especially at night. Being in the road and bridge building trade, they should understand road safety techniques better than anyone. The crew on this side begrudged the crew on the other side over that 10 m of road for fear of losing out. They never imagined that 10 m of dangerously broken road had ruined their ethics and their blessings.

The houses on both sides were also indifferent and irresponsible, thinking it was not their business even though the road was right in front of their homes. The local officials were away somewhere too. In the end, the 5 visitors from the city enjoyed all those blessings. In filling the deep holes in the road they also filled their hearts with goodness, added merit for their descendants, and added to their own ethics.

Repairing a road earns great merit because it helps everyone travel safely. The law of cause and effect often brings much good fortune to those who repair roads.

Here we are talking about a sense of responsibility. A person of poor ethics has plenty of arguments to prove that this part of the work is not their responsibility and so need not be dealt with. A person of ethics sees every task, wherever it is, as their own responsibility. Walking down the street and seeing rubbish scattered about, they blame themselves for not yet doing anything to call on everyone to join in picking it up. Seeing people in poverty, they blame themselves for not yet contributing anything to make life less hard...

If a country has many people with a strong sense of responsibility, that country will be powerful. Otherwise, it will remain "developing" forever. We must teach our children a sense of responsibility so strong that it spreads everywhere. Whenever they see something that benefits the world, they should eagerly contribute their effort, and not pass the responsibility to anyone else. They should even compete to be the ones to do it, rather than waiting to be told.
A person who understands ethics looks forward to chances to do many such public-benefit tasks.