It was an autumn day. Armen and his brother Sarkis were walking home after school. As expected it started raining. Their mother had given them an umbrella saying: "Boys, this umbrella is large enough to keep both of you dry. So share it." Armen opened the umbrella, and they continued their walk home.

Unfortunately, the two brothers started bumping into each other. Armen’s arm hit Sarkis’ shoulder, and the latter’s case hit his brother’s leg. Each accused the other of intentionally pushing him.

"You're pushing me on purpose!" shouted Sarkis.

"No I am not!" responded Armen.

"Yes you are too!" answered back Sarkis.

"All right" said Armen. "I have the solution. We have about ten minutes before we get home. So I will take the umbrella for the first five minutes and you take it for the last five minutes. Does that sound fair?"

"Sounds fair to me," said Sarkis, after a thinking for a while.

So Armen walked with the umbrella at first. The rain kept pouring and because there were no rain shelters under which they could stand, they continued walking. While Armen stayed dry, Sarkis became soaking wet.

After walking a few blocks when the five minutes were up, Armen gave the umbrella to Sarkis as promised. Sarkis took the umbrella, but he was already soaking wet! As Armen started walking in the rain without the umbrella, his cloths and books became wet too.

After five minutes, they finally arrived home. Their mother saw them and was surprised:

"Boys, I gave you an umbrella large enough to keep both of you dry. How can both of you be wet?!"

The boys looked down, then looked at each other, then looked down again. Finally, Armen had the courage to speak.

"Mom, we started sharing the umbrella but we kept bumping into each other. So instead of being uncomfortable, we agreed that each of us will take it for five minutes . . ."

". . . We didn't realize that we'll both get wet and the umbrella will be useless. We didn't know that sharing can be uncomfortable at times," added Sarkis.

"I am glad that you boys learned that sharing does not just mean giving something extra that you may have. It also means putting up with discomfort when there is one item which you need to share. I am glad you realized your mistake and learned from it. I am sure next time you will do better!"