I heard the story about a man who was put in charge of keeping a lighthouse lit. At the beginning of each month he received a shipment of oil that would last exactly 31 days and he was given explicit instructions to not use the oil for any purpose other than lighting the lighthouse. During the course of the month several people approached him with what seemed like legitimate needs to borrow oil and he relented to these requests. With two days left in the month though he ran out of oil and could not provide the light needed for approaching ships.

On the second night, 3 ships crash...