China Waiting Stump

tale:china_waiting_stump

A farmer sees a hare run headlong into a tree stump and break its neck, and feasts on it. Hoping for more, he abandons his plow to watch the stump day after day; no second hare comes, and his field runs to weeds while he becomes the laughingstock of the state. Moral: to wait on a lucky fluke is to ruin the work that feeds you. — Han Feizi