“A farmer had only one horse and one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to console him over his terrible loss. The farmer said, “who knows what is good and what is bad. It is as it is. My horse is gone.”
A month later, the horse came home – this time bringing with her a beautiful wild horse. The neighbors became excited at the farmer’s good fortune, “Such a lovely strong horse!”. The farmer said, “who knows what is good and what is bad. All I see is that another horse has appeared.”
Shortly threafter, the farmer’s son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. “Such bad luck!” the villagers exclaimed, for the farmer was too old to do for himself all the work. The farmer just said, “who knows what is good and what is bad. My son broke his legs. That’s all I know.”
Then a war came, and the government forcibly removed all the able-bodied men from the village to send them into battle. Nine out of ten were killed. The old man’s son, however, was spared since his legs were broken. The neighbor thought to himself “who knows what is good and what is bad”.
– Unknown