| Long ago, near the frontier lived an old man. One day
he found his horse missing. It was said that the horse
was seen running outside the border of the country. The
neighbors came to comfort him for the unfortunate loss.
But the old man was unexpectedly calm and said, "It
doesn't matter; it may not be a bad event, on the contrary,
I think it can be a good one." One night the old
man heard some noise of horses and got up to see. To
his surprise, he saw another beautiful horse as well
as his own. It was clear that his horse had brought
a companion home. Hearing the news, the neighbors all
came to say congratulation on his good luck. At the
greetings, however, the old man was very calm and thoughtful.
He added, "It is true that I got a new horse for
nothing, but it is hard to say whether it is good or
bad. It may be an unlucky thing."
What he said was testified right. The son of the old
man was very fond of the horse brought home, and one
day, when he was riding the horse, he fell down from
the horseback and terribly hurt in his left leg. Since
then he was never able to walk freely. "Nothing
serious," the old man said, "perhaps it is
going to be good."
A year later, many of the youth there were recruited
to fight in a war and most of them died. The son of
the old man was absolved from the obligation for his
disability, so he escaped death.
The old story tells us that good and bad, disaster
and happiness can be converting objects to each other
sometimes.
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