Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?

"Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect."
-  Margaret Mitchell

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who used an old mare to till his fields. One day, the mare escaped into the woods and the farmer’s neighbors get together and sympathized with the old man over his bad luck. The farmer replied, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?”

A week later, the mare returned with a young stallion from the woods and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his great and good luck. His reply

A righteous verdict

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."

- Isaac Asimov

Once upon a time, a rich merchant lost a bag full of gold coins. Looking everywhere but not finding it, he finally hired a herald to walk around the city and tell everyone that he will reward the honest finder with 100 gold coins. Not long after the herald finished delivering the rich merchant’s message, a poor farmer showed up on a merchant’s doorstep.

“Here merchant, I believe that this is your lost bag of coins” he told the rich man. Filled with delight, rich merchant grabbed the bag and immediately started counting the coins. After he counted it all, he suddenly saddened, since he remembered that he had to give 100 coins to the farmer as promised. After some thought, he had an idea how to keep the coins and swindle the honest finder.

“I see that you have already taken your 100 coins my good man,” he told the farmer “There were 800 gold coins in this bag and now there are only 700. You have done well. Thank you!”

Poor farmer was very surprised to hear this, more hurt by the lie than not getting the promised reward. He started swearing that he never even opened the bag and that the brought it as he found it. Unfortunately, the rich merchant insisted that there were 800 coins in the bag and now only 700. Not being able to reach an agreement, they went to the city judge, each one hoping to receive favorable verdict.

Survival lesson

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

- Dale Carnegi

Once upon a time, on a hot summer day a farmer’s donkey fell down a deep well. For hours on end, the poor animal cried out in distress as the farmer tried to imagine a way to get the donkey out. Finally he determined, since the poor donkey was really rather old and not worth saving, besides, he decided to use this accident to his advantage by covering over the well.

Thus, he invited all of his neighbors over to help him cover the well and put the old donkey out of its misery.  Courteously, the other farmers dropped by, grabbed shovels and began to scoop dirt down into the well.

The donkey realized what was happening and cried out wretchedly in despair.  After some time, he quickly quieted down and, much to their amazement, looked up at them almost calculatingly. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was amazed at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something incredible. He would simply shake it off, and climbed on top of the falling dirt.