shǒu zhū dài tù

Literal: To guard (守, shǒu) a tree trunk (株, zhū) waiting (待, dài) for rabbits (兔, tù)

Actual: To want results without work; or to rely on narrow experiences and not think generally

During the Song dynasty, there lived a hardworking farmer who was a little dense. Every day he would go down to his rice fields, striking the fertile soil with the sun on his back. He earned enough for a living, although a rather dull one. Once in a while he would rest under an old tree next to his cottage, wondering if his fate would ever change.

One day a rabbit came speeding by - a flash of white lightning whizzing past the field towards the tree. Then - BAM! - it hit the old tree and died on the spot. The farmer could hardly believe his eyes - a free meal! He swooped up the rabbit, skinned it, processed its meat for dinner and sold its fur on Ebay for a hefty sum.

From that day onward, the farmer stopped farming. He sat cross-legged next to the tree day after day, waiting for rabbits. Confused neighbors would stop by once in a while and ask “Why?”, to which he always replied: “I’m waiting for dead rabbits!”

After several weeks, the farmer finally realized that no more silly kamikaze rabbits would arrive. As he trudged away from the tree, the farmer saw his plots of dead crops full of weeds and rubble, realizing that he wasn’t much of a farmer anymore.

TL;DR: Dead rabbits are no basis for a system of consistent income. Perhaps the farmer should have worked hard and bought into index funds - I hear the market’s quite discounted as of late.