Once in rural China there was a land baron who had a stable of 12 prized horses. One day they found a gap in the fence while grazing and decided to bolt out of the field into the open. When the townsfolk heard about this they resounded with ‘oh what bad luck for you to lose all your horses at once.’
5 days later, the land baron found all 12 of his horses return looking tired and hungry. With them they brought one more horse in the form of a stallion. The townsfolk echoed once again ‘oh what good luck you have, you lost 12 horses but now you have 13.’
One day the land baron’s son decided to ride the new stallion that returned with the rest of the horses. However being a wild horse it threw the son off. The son landed in the dirt and broke his leg. The townsfolk then had their say once again, ‘oh what bad luck you have; the 13th horse has caused your son’s broken leg.’
Now 1 week later, the state in which the land baron lived in had to go to war with a rival state that was trying to invade them. All able young men of the land baron’s son’s age was called to the army to fight for their state. However because the son’s leg was broken he was not conscripted. 2 weeks later the land was invaded and every young man of the son’s age was killed. The townsfolk all stated once again ‘ oh what good luck you have, your son is still alive because his broken leg prevented him from going to war.’
Moral of the story? Don’t count on luck taking you from where you are to where you are going.
