A man walking down a deserted beach at sunset noticed a young

boy in the distance. Coming closer, He saw that he kept leaning down, picking up something and throwing it into the ocean.
As He approached even closer, He saw that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time, he was throwing them back into the ocean.
He was puzzled and approached the boy saying, “Good evening, friend. I was wondering what you are doing.”
“I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. Said the boy: You see, all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die.
“I understand,” the man replied, “but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach! You can’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?”
The boy smiled, picked up a starfish, and threw it back into the sea, and said, “made a difference to that one!”