Every evening, the ashram cat wandered through the worship service and distracted everyone. The guru ordered that it be tied up during prayers.
The guru died, but the cat continued to be tied up each evening. When the cat died, the disciples found another cat so the ritual could continue.
Centuries later, scholars wrote learned treatises explaining why a properly conducted worship service required a tied cat.
Source: Anthony de Mello, “The Guru’s Cat,” The Song of the Bird, printed p. 79 (PDF p. 97). Retold.
What it argues
A practical workaround can outlive its problem and become a principle no one remembers choosing. Institutions often preserve the solution after losing the reason.
Use it for: bureaucracy, tradition, path dependence, cargo-cult processes, and “we’ve always done it this way.”