Good....bad....who knows?

There once was a poor rice farmer, who had a very small field just large enough to feed his family. 

He also had a horse; but one day, the horse ran away.  So the farmer and his 12 year old son had to plow the field all by themselves.  Their neighbors said, "Oh, what bad luck that your horse ran away!"  But the farmer replied with a shrug of his shoulders, "Bad luck...good luck...who knows?"

The next week, the horse returned leading a herd of wild horses.  They came hurdling through the vil­lage. They ran into the farmer’s rice field and got stuck in the mud; and since they couldn’t get away, they became his.

His neigh­bor came run­ning over and said, “This is good news! Such good for­tune! You are rich, this is amaz­ing!” And the rice farmer said, “Good news, bad news, who knows?”

A few weeks later the farmer’s son jumped up on one of the wild horses for a ride, only to be thrown off and have his leg bro­ken. "Ah, such bad luck," sympathized the neighbors.   Once again, the farmer responded, “Bad luck, good luck, who knows?”

A week later a Chi­nese gen­eral marched his army through the farmer’s vil­lage on the way to war. On this march, the army conscripts every healthy, able-bodied boy over 10 years of age. So they took every boy in the vil­lage except for the farmer’s son because of his bro­ken leg.

The neigh­bors came run­ning over, proclaiming, “What good luck that your son was not forced into battle!” And the father of the boy once more:  “Good luck....bad luck.....who knows?!”