Cutting a mark beside the boat for a sword| 刻舟求剑 (Kè zhōu qiú jiàn)

Once upon a time, there was a man who lived in the State of Chu. One day, he went to the market on the opposite river. He brought a sword with him and took a boat. When the boat was in the middle of the river, the sword suddenly fell from his hand into the water. Someone next to him quickly told him, but he stayed calm, took out a small knife, and made a mark on the side of the boat.

Someone else next to him was confused and asked, “Why don’t you jump into the water to look for your sword right now? What does the mark mean?”

The man pointed to the mark and said, “Don’t worry. My sword fell into the water from this marked place. When the boat reaches the dock, I will dive into the water from here to find my sword.”

The moral of the story is that we should do things that make sense in the real situation, instead of doing things that are pointless.


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