Fables

   Long, long ago in China, there lived an extremely lazy farmer. Although every day he worked his fields and tended to his animals, he did so only because he knew he had to eat. This farmer was not only lazy, he was also greedy!
    One hot summer afternoon, the farmer was working his fields when out of the corner of his eye, he saw a rabbit running as fast as it could! The rabbit seemed to be running away from an enemy, and was turning its head to see if whatever was chasing it was still there. The farmer paused and watched in fascination, as he soon realized that the rabbit was running straight for a huge tree. The rabbit kept running, and didn't notice the obstacle in front of it. Busy looking behind itself, the rabbit ran full speed into the tree trunk and died.
   The farmer was very pleased, because he now had a meal.
    "And to think, I didn't have to do anything to get it!" the farmer thought hungrily. The farmer quickly put down his tools and roasted the rabbit. After he had finished eating, he was reluctant to go back to working.
   "After all, why should I work so hard if I can get a free meal so easily!" he thought. Then he had a brilliant idea! Or so he thought...
   "I know! I will never have to work my fields or watch over my animals again! I will just sit beside this tree and wait for rabbits to run into them. Then, the rabbits will die, and I will not have to work for my food," the farmer said to himself.
   So he sat down beside the tree, and waited. A day passed, and no rabbits even came close to his farmland. Still, the lazy farmer waited, not wanting to get up. Another day passed, and still no rabbits came. The farmer was getting hungry, but he was too lazy to get up and work his fields or go hunt. A third day passed, bringing no rabbits, but the farmer kept waiting.
   Weeks passed, and the farmer was starving. Finally, the farmer felt as if he would die if he did not get something to eat. So he stood up to go and see how his crops and his animals were doing.
   As the farmer had been sitting lazily beside the tree for weeks, his crops, without his care, had wilted and died. His animals had died because no one had fed them. The farmer was without food.    So the farmer sat down beside the tree again, and continued waiting.
   No rabbits came, and eventually, the farmer starved to death.

   The moral of this fable is to never be lazy and greedy. If you do not work for something, do not expect to get it. Although you may receive some things without working hard, you cannot go through life waiting for things to happen just because you do not want to do things yourself. Do not be like the greedy farmer and let others do things for you. You can't expect the "rabbits" in life to run into trees so you can eat them!