Better to get an egg a day than a hen tomorrow.
Better to get an egg a day than a hen tomorrow.
The value of an egg that you get today is higher than a hen that you may or may not get in the future. It is better to be content with what we get today and plan our life accordingly than to live on dreams that may not come true tomorrow. It is good to have lofty goals in fife. But we should not let go of the opportunities that are currently available in pursuit of bigger things. We must be realistic. That is the message conveyed in this proverb.
Once there was a shepherd who was grazing his sheep in the forest. Every morning he would drive them up the hill and bring them back home by late evening. He always dreamt of owning more sheep but hardly took any efforts to realize his dream. One afternoon there was a sudden storm and the shepherd hurriedly drove his sheep into a nearby cave for shelter.
When he entered the cave he found some wild goats already inside. The shepherd immediately hit upon an idea. He decided to feed the wild goats along with his sheep so that he would be able to have more number of animals in his fold. The wild goats were huge and ate a lot of grass and leaves. There was hardly any grass left for the sheep but the shepherd hardly worried about it. He was more interested in making the wild goats fatter so that he could get a better price for them in the market for their meat.
The shepherd kept awake day and night looking after the wild goats making sure they did not run away. A few days later the storm subsided and on his usual visit to the cave one morning the shepherd found to his horror that the cave was empty. The wild goats had escaped into the hills once they realized that the storm had subsided.
The wild goats had also fought with the sheep and left there badly injured. Some of the sheep had even died. It was then that the shepherd realized how foolish he had been in neglecting his own sheep and looking after the wild goat which never belonged to him. He tried to save the remaining sheep but unfortunately they had not been fed property soon died one after another. Thus the shepherd was left with nothing in the end. He had to stave without his sheep.
Better to get an egg a day than a hen tomorrow.
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