  The steady state in three-level lambda and ladder systems is studied. It is
well-known that in a lambda system this steady state is the coherent population
trapping state, independent of the presence of spontaneous emission. In
contrast, the steady state in a ladder system is in general not stable against
radiative decay and exhibits a minimum in the population of the ground state.
It is shown that incoherent population pumping destroys the stability of the
coherent population trapping state in the lambda system and suppresses a
previously discovered sharp dip in the steady state response. In the ladder
system the observed minimum disappears in the presence of an incoherent pump on
the upper transition.
