Long ago, in a quiet village of ancient China, there lived a hardworking farmer. Every morning, he would go to his field to till the soil, tend to his crops, and sweat under the sun. His life followed the steady rhythm of the seasons.
One afternoon, as he was taking a short rest by the edge of his field, a sudden rustle came from the nearby woods. A wild hare, sprinting in a blind panic, dashed out of the bushes. It was running so fast that it failed to see a large, old tree stump in its path. With a heavy thud, the hare crashed headfirst into the stump, broke its neck, and died instantly.
The farmer was astonished. He walked over, picked up the plump, lifeless hare, and couldn't believe his luck. "What a marvelous fortune!" he exclaimed. "Without any effort at all, I have my dinner! This is far easier than toiling in the fields all day."
That evening, he enjoyed a hearty stew. But as he ate, a new thought took root in his mind and began to grow.
The next day, the farmer did not go to his field. Instead, he sat down beside the same old stump. He waited patiently, his eyes fixed on the spot where the hare had met its fate. He believed that another hare would surely come running out of the woods and dash itself against the stump. He waited from sunrise until sunset, but nothing happened.
Undeterred, he returned on the third day, and the fourth, and the week after that. He brought a small stool and sat for hours, doing nothing but watching and waiting. His hoe lay forgotten, and his fields lay untended. Weeds began to sprout among his crops, but he paid them no mind, convinced that his fortune would come from the stump, not the soil.
Days turned into weeks. No second hare ever appeared. Meanwhile, his neglected fields became barren and overgrown. At harvest time, when his neighbors were gathering their grain, the farmer had nothing to reap. He sat by the deserted stump, hungry and full of regret, finally understanding his foolishness.
Moral of the story: Success never comes from blindly relying on a single lucky chance. It is the reward for consistent, diligent work. To abandon one's duties and wait idly for windfalls is to invite certain failure.