87. WEALTHY MAN’S SPIT

108 Buddhist Parables

In one of the small towns at the time, everyone competed to gain the favor of an extremely wealthy man. Even if he spitted, someone would hurry to honor him by putting out the spit with their foot. However, one villager never got the opportunity to even do that. So one day, he decided that since everyone beat him to stepping on the spit before it reached the ground, he would carefully observe the wealthy man, and step on the spit just as it was leaving his mouth. Greatly pleased with his plan, when he followed through with it the next day, he ended up kicking the wealthy man right in the face. Greatly angered, the wealthy man yelled, “You must be a lunatic! Why did you just kick me in the mouth?”

The villager replied, “I did it to gain your favor, Sire. When you spit, everyone else rushes to step and put it in the ground, but I am always too late. So, I stepped on it even before it left your mouth. And now that you know my reason, surely you are pleased by what I did.”

The man’s mistake was that his timing was wildly off. There is a proper time for everything, and if a person wants to force a benefit before the proper time for it has arrived, it will lead to problems.

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