Today a friend of mine - Zero, reminded me about that Taoist story. I took it from his blog ...
Once upon a time there was a farmer who looked at his barnyard one
morning and saw his horse was missing. His neighbor came by, as he did
every morning for his cup of tea, and saw the farmer looking at the
empty corral. He said,"You sure have bad luck today!" The farmer gazed
off toward the horizon and quietly said,"who can tell? Bad or good?"
The
next morning, his horse came back, while three wild horses and a small
herd of goats followed him to the yard. The farmer looked at his
overfull barnyard as the neighbor came by. His friend said,"well, here
i thought you were unlucky, but now i see that you had good luck after
all." The farmer glanced at the horizon and quietly said,"Who can tell? Bad or good?"
That afternoon the farmers eldest son, his pride and future heir to
the farm, tried to ride one of the new horses. The boy was thrown off
into a pile of rocks and broke his leg in three places. As friends were
carrying the boy away on a stretcher, the neighbor sadly said,"Ah! Such
bad luck!" But the farmer just stopped for a moment, gazed toward the
sunset and mumbled,"Who can tell? Bad or good?"
The next morning
soldiers came. There was a war going on in a neighboring province and
they were taking all the able bodied young men to fight. And let me
tell you, all the boys that they took for their war died in that war. They took every boy in the village except...except the farmers eldest
son and heir, because his leg was broken in three places. The neighbor
came by and said,"Wow! Such good luck you just had!" The farmer
replied,"Well, uh,who can tell? Good or bad luck?"...
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