Kaiser Khorosho
Happens to me A LOT. Most recent example is I've had an idea bouncing around in my head for a few years. Haven't started to write it because I'm bad like that and can never push out more than one character at a time...ANYWAY.
The idea takes place on a giant spacefaring creature that has multiple worlds on it, in biospheres, if you will. And I recently started reading the Discworld series, which titular location is a large, discshaped world on the back of a GIANT SPACEFARING CREATURE. (a turtle, to be exact)
Now, I LOVE the series. I'm almost finished with the second book and have already bought a third. I also came across a neat idea that I'd like to make into a whole story; the "hero" and his party enter a magical shop that teleports all over the universe and is run by an eccentric shop owner. I dunno...that'd be like stealing, wouldn't it? It also kinda sounds like Pet Shop of Horrors.
emotion_facepalm
GUH...this is why I haven't written anything other than RPs in three years. I get afraid to start writing thinking I'll be unoriginal, and I know its total bullshit because "SIMPSONS DID IT!"
Either drop this notion of originality or give up writing. You'll never have an idea that bears no resemblance to something else.
Even the Discworld example you gave is based off Native American beliefs.
I'd also say sometimes an idea needs to be "ripped off" a few times before someone does it right.