Carving a Plow in the Middle of the Road

Once upon a time, in the suburbs of Thang Long Citadel, there was a family of a fool who worked in farming. One day, the fool’s wife told him that their family needed to make a plow to work more productively, less hard, and to be able to plow for hire to earn more money.

The next day, the fool took fifty coins and went to buy a good piece of wood to carve a plow. He was very happy to have bought a good piece of wood, but he had never made a plow before. The fool thought: If I don’t know how to carve a plow, I’ll just take the piece of wood to the roadside and carve it and ask for everyone’s opinion. Everyone can give their opinions, and I’ll be able to do it somehow. The fool thought to himself that he was so smart that he wouldn’t have to bring the wood to the shop to carve a plow. When his wife comes home and sees it, she will definitely praise him.

Later, he took a wood chisel and brought the wood to the middle of the road where people often walked to carve a plow. After waiting for a long time, someone passed by and he started a conversation:

• Stupid guy: Have you ever carved a plow before? Can you show me how to carve one?
• Passerby: It’s easy to carve a plow, you just carve from top to bottom, the top end is small, the bottom end is big, and the blade is flat.

The fool happily followed along and was carving for a while when suddenly someone passing by asked:

• What are you doing.
• The fool replied: I am carving a plow.
• The passerby said: You are carving wrong. Who would carve from top to bottom like that? You should carve the plowshare first, shape it, and then carve the handle.

The fool heard what the passerby said and thought it made sense, so he started to chisel again according to the passerby’s suggestion.

After a while of carving and almost forming a plow, a passerby criticized:

• You’re not carving it right, you’re carving it too big. Then show me some places that need fixing.

The fool heard that it made sense so he did as he was told. After a while, a person passed by and said:

• You can’t plow like this, the plow head you made is too big…

The fool listened more reasonably, he revised according to the advice, he chiseled for a while then a person passed by and said:

• You’re not doing it right, the plow you made is too long and not convenient.

The stupid man heard it again and made more sense, so he edited it accordingly.

And finally, at the end of that day, the fool had only a piece of wood left that was too small to be adjusted. The fool no longer had the chance to carve the plow the way he wanted, the precious wood had become a pile of firewood. The fool was very sad. When his wife came home and learned of the incident, she immediately shouted: “If you can’t do it, you should ask a carpenter, why are you blocking the road? No matter what you do, you must have your own opinion and persevere on the path you have chosen.”

The fool bowed his head in regret and promised not to do it again.