Have you ever hoped that success would simply come to you? Maybe you’ve bought a lottery ticket, uploaded a video expecting it to go viral overnight, or waited for the perfect opportunity to appear without taking the next step yourself.

Chinese has a perfect expression for moments like these:

“守株待兔” (shǒu zhū dài tù).

Literally, it means “guarding a tree stump while waiting for a rabbit.”

守 (shǒu) – to guard, to watch over, to wait by

株 (zhū) – tree stump (originally the trunk or root of a tree)

待 (dài) – to wait for

兔 (tù) – rabbit

It sounds rather strange, but the story behind it has been teaching people an important lesson for over two thousand years.

Long ago, there was a farmer working in his field. One day, a frightened rabbit came running across the countryside. It was moving so fast that it didn’t notice a tree stump standing in the middle of the field. The rabbit crashed straight into the stump, broke its neck, and died. The farmer couldn’t believe his luck. Without doing anything at all, he had just been given a free meal.

The next morning, instead of working in his fields, he returned to the same tree stump and sat down to wait. He thought, “If one rabbit ran into the stump, surely another one will.”

So he waited. And waited. And waited. But no more rabbits came.

While he was waiting, his crops were neglected. Weeds spread across his fields, and by the end of the season, he had harvested almost nothing. Since then, the expression “守株待兔” (shǒu zhū dài tù) has been used to describe someone who expects success without making any effort or who relies on luck instead of taking action. Of course, luck does exist. Sometimes opportunities really do appear when we least expect them.

But building your life around a lucky accident is a very risky strategy. The farmer wasn’t wrong because he accepted the first rabbit. He was wrong because he expected the same accident to happen again instead of returning to the work that had always fed him.

It’s a reminder that success rarely comes from waiting. More often, it comes from showing up every day, doing the work, and letting luck find you while you’re already moving. So the next time you find yourself waiting for the perfect opportunity, remember the farmer and the tree stump.

Sometimes, the rabbit only comes once.