An old man was fishing on the bank of a river. A child came to see him fishing. The old man was really good at fishing and it didn't take long for him to catch a full basket of fish. The old man saw that the child was very cute, and he wanted to give her a whole basket of fish. But the child shook her head. The old man was surprised and asked, “Why don't you want the fish?”
The child answered, “I want the fishing rod(竿) in your hands.”
The old man asked, “Why do you want the rod?”
“It doesn't take long to eat all the fish in a basket. But if I have the fishing rod, I can go fishing by myself and I won't be afraid of not having any more fish to eat.”
I think you will certainly say that the child is very smart. Wrong! If she doesn't know how to fish, she can not have fish to eat, even though she has the fishing rod. It's useless to only have a fishing rod. Fishing skills are the most important, not the fishing rod.
Too many people think that if they have a “fishing rod” in their life, they will no longer fear(害怕)the wind and rain. They are just like the child, who thought that if she had a fishing rod, she would have fish to eat.
