I have a story to tell. A story about a toothless tiger who waits in vain for its prey. So here goes...

One day, a toothless tiger was born and it was very difficult to find suitable food for itself. But heaven made it that even toothless tigers will be able to find a suitable prey to survive on. From that day onwards, the toothless tiger always preyed only on that particular animal.

So it happens that this animal is very elusive and only appears occasionally in front of the tiger. For the tiger to catch the animal more often, it often has to lie in wait for its prey, sometimes ages.

Now, one fine day, this toothless tiger couldn't stand its growling stomach (because it hasn't eaten in some time) and decided to lie in wait for its prey at the usual place again (守株待兔 they call it). Actually, this tiger wasn't exactly stupid and went to a fortune-teller to predict if the prey will appear and the result was more than 50% positive.

So feeling rather positive, this tiger took up its place early in the morning and waited. Waited. Waited.


And waited.


Almost 10 hours later, the prey still hadn't appeared and the toothless tiger was feeling sleepy. It went back to rest before going back to its hunting place in the afternoon the next day. The tiger didn't hunt in the morning on the 2nd day because it was too tired from the previous day and was feeling a little sick. The tiger resumed its wait for a couple of hours more before giving up.

Why give up you may say? Because the tiger knew that the prey wouldn't be appearing since it would have appeared if it was meant to be. True enough, the fortune-teller told the tiger the next day, that the prey was sighted in another area, far far away from the toothless tiger. The tiger only shook its head and rued its misfortune.

The tiger ain't that stupid afterall. It knew when to give up (not considering that it already waited a day or two for the prey), and not to let failure get to it. Just keep trying and one day, you'll get what you want. There. That's the moral of the story. Haha.