The Taoist Farmer
A humble Taoist farmer in ancient China was a happy and peaceful man. He did not have much but he had two great passions in his life. His only son of which he was very proud, and his one beautiful horse which he had raised on his farm.
One day, the fence around his farm broke and his horse ran away.
His neighbors said, “I'm so sorry. This is such bad news. You must be so upset that you lost your only horse.”
The man just said, “We'll see.”
A few days later, his horse came back with twenty wild horses following. In those days, horses were highly valued and this was a tremendous windfall for the farmer. The man and his son corraled all 21 horses.
His neighbors said, “Congratulations! This is such good news. You must be so happy!”
The man just said, “We'll see.”
In breaking in one of the wild horses, the man's only son, was thrown off the horse and broke his leg.
His neighbors said, “I'm so sorry. This is such bad news. You must be so upset.”
The man just said, “We'll see.”
Soon came the message from the Emperor that the country was under attack and had to go to war. And there was a decree that every able-bodied young man was drafted to fight. The war was terrible and killed every young man who was drafted from that village, but the farmer's son was spared, since his broken leg prevented him from being drafted.
His neighbors said, “Congratulations! This is such good news. You must be so happy!”
The man just said, “We'll see.”
No comments:
Post a Comment