Appearances are often deceptive.

All lay loads on a willing horse.

A willing horse is a term which is used to describe people who are sincere and committed workers and are ready to do all the work given to them. The term originated from earlier days when people used horses as their beasts of burden to carry loads. The horses were loaded indiscriminately and still they would carry the load without disobeying their master.


This proverb is similar to the proverb that the lead cow always gets the whipping. The lead cow is the first cow which is connected to the plough and the rest of the cows follow the lead cow. Whenever the plough does not move properly as the farmer desired the lead cow gets whipped. In any project the leaders have to work hard to ensure success as they are responsible and directly answerable to the boss.


Similarly there are people who would like to exploit sincere, hardworking and duty conscious people by giving them more work. The nature to work doesn’t mean that these people are meek or dumb. But instead it indicates the sincerity of the people. The exploitation of the labour class by their masters is also good example of this saying.


Appearances are often deceptive.

The external appearances of an object or a person should not play role in judging them. The external appearances may not be true and there may be some hidden inner qualities. Generally people look at some things and then try judge by them by their sense of vision. But there are many things which have common external appearances but they are very different internally. Diamonds and Glass beads look alike but diamonds are strong. Similarly there is a compound called fool’s gold which glitters like gold but does not have other characteristics of gold.


The people who are in business take advantage of this and advertise their products in such a way that customers are lured into buying them. But later on they repent their decision after knowing the true quality of the product.


There is also an old story where the tiger which wanted to hunt cows wore the skin and behaved like a cow. He later on entered the cow shed and started killing the cows. People for a long time thought that he was a cow until they found that it is only a tiger in a cow’s hide. So with our power of analytic thinking and reasoning we should judge people and objects based on their inner qualities and not by their external appearances.