The Old Man Who Lost His Horse

Long ago, near the northern frontier of China, where the farmland ended and the wide grasslands began, there lived an old man and his son.

The old man was known in the village for two things: his skill with horses, and his calm. Whatever happened, he never seemed surprised.

They owned one horse, a fine strong one, and it was the most valuable thing they had.

The horse runs away

One morning they woke to find the gate open and the horse gone. Its hoofprints led off across the frontier, into the lands of the northern tribes. There was no hope of getting it back.

The neighbours came round to comfort him.

"What terrible luck," they said. "Your only horse! How will you plough? How will you carry your goods to market?"

The old man only shrugged.

"Who knows?" he said. "Perhaps this is bad luck. Perhaps it is good."

The neighbours looked at each other and went home shaking their heads.

The horse returns

A few months later, there was a great noise outside the village. The old man's horse had come home. And it had not come alone. Running beside it were several wild horses from the north, strong and beautiful, which followed it straight into the yard.

The neighbours hurried round again.

"What wonderful luck!" they said. "You lost one horse, and now you have many! You're a rich man!"

The old man stroked his horse's nose.

"Who knows?" he said. "Perhaps this is good luck. Perhaps it is bad."

The son's fall

The old man's son loved the new horses and spent every day training them. He was a good rider, but one of the wild horses was too wild. It reared and threw him, and he fell so badly that his leg was broken. It never healed properly, and he walked with a limp from then on.

The neighbours came round once more.

"What dreadful luck," they said. "Your only son, lamed for life! Who will help you on the farm? It was those horses that did it."

The old man sat beside his son's bed.

"Who knows?" he said. "Perhaps this is bad luck. Perhaps it is good."

War

About a year later, the northern tribes came across the frontier in great numbers. War had begun. Officers rode through every village, taking all the young men who could fight.

The battles on the frontier were terrible. It is said that nine out of every ten young men from that region who went to fight did not come home.

But the old man's son, with his limp, was not taken. He stayed at home, and he and his father survived together.

The neighbours did not come round this time. But they understood.

The saying

In China, this little story is so well known that it has become a saying of four characters: sài wēng shī mǎ, "the old man at the frontier loses his horse." People say it when something goes wrong, to remind each other that a misfortune may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

The longer form adds a question: the old man lost his horse, but how could anyone know it was not good fortune?

About this story

This story comes from the Huainanzi, a book of philosophy collected in about 139 BCE at the court of Liu An, the Prince of Huainan. The original is very short, only a few lines long. It has been retold for over two thousand years, and this version, with its added dialogue, is a free retelling.