Is there such a thing as an “original” idea?

Folk tales have no known authors because printing was not yet invented when they were first told. There were no publishing companies nor patenting offices to which one could go to for claiming ownership of the tale.

Isn’t it true that sometimes we come up with an idea which we think is so original only to find out a few days later that someone somewhere in a far, far away place across the ocean, someone had already thought of it decades or centuries ago?

Maybe there’s no such thing as an original idea, but that some are more fortunate than others in having access to a technology that can make them claim ownership of a particular idea.

I know this musing is not original either. Someone somewhere in the same town or across the ocean must have thought the same, either a minute ago or centuries ago.