The Wishful Farmer
故事全文
During the Warring States period, there was a farmer in the State of Song. He worked hard tilling his fields every day, so that his family would have enough to eat. One day, as he was busy weeding the field, a rabbit dashed out of nowhere, running as fast as it could. It ran into a large tree in the field by accident, and died on the spot.
The farmer quickly grabbed the rabbit and said happily, “This is my lucky day, I’ve found such a big rabbit! If I catch a rabbit every day, that’s thirty rabbits in a month! If I sell them, I won’t have to work so hard in the future! ”
From that day on, he stopped tilling his fields, and sat beneath the tree all day, waiting for a rabbit. Eventually, his fields were overgrown with weeds, but there was not a single rabbit to be seen. People across the country laughed at the farmer for relying on past experience to wait for rabbits to appear, instead of thinking of new ways to catch them.
