Piece of wisdom

What is a short, useful, and generally applicable piece of wisdom?

In ancient China, there lived a famous, old sage (wise man).

His wisdom was so famous that people from all walks of life used to come from all over China and the world to seek his wisdom. Everybody with a difficult problem or question would come to seek advice, solutions or just to seek wisdom.

He was an advisor to kings, rulers, emperors, noblemen, and ordinary folk.

In the same land there lived some delinquent fellows who did not respect the law or anyone. When they heard about the wisdom of the sage, they decided to travel all the way from their country to test the sage.

They tried to think of the best way to test the sage.

One of them suggested a method that they thought would be marvelous to make the sage look like a fool.

So they caught a live bird and put it in a cage as if they were taking a present to the sage.

They reasoned that they would ask the sage the question of whether the bird was alive or dead. If he replied that the bird was alive they would just strangle it. If he replied that it was dead, they would just show him the live bird.

So off they went.

When they approached near where the sage lived, he took one look at them and discerned that they were coming to test him.

When they arrived, the sage, looking the other way asked them:

“What do you want?”

One of them replied:

“Sir, your fame supersedes you. We’ve heard of your wisdom from as far as our country. We decided to come and ask you a question that has been nagging our minds.”

The sage replied:

“And you traveled all the way from your country just to ask a question?”

“Yes, sir”, replied one of the young men.

Then the sage replied, “Ok, let’s hear the question.”

“Sir, we’re holding a bird in our hands. Please tell us whether the bird is dead or alive.”

Without turning, the sage replied, “You came all the way from your country, wasted your time, money and energy just to ask such a stupid question?”

Then he continued, “Whether the bird is alive or dead, is really up to you.”

Realizing that they had been outdone, the delinquent fellows just turned around and took off without saying another word.