Once a jackal was wandering through the forest, very hungry. He came upon a clearing where four dead animals lay — a deer, a boar, a snake, and a hunter.
The jackal's eyes went wide. 'So much food! This will last for days!' But greed got the better of him. 'I won't eat right away. First I will save it all. I'll start with the smallest thing — the bowstring of the hunter's bow.'
'If I chew through the bowstring,' he reasoned, 'I will gain that too. Start small, get the big things later.' This was his remarkable plan.
He began gnawing at the bowstring. The moment his teeth went through it, the bow sprang back with tremendous force. Its sharp tip drove straight into the jackal's belly.
The jackal fell where he stood. All around him lay the feast he had been scheming about. But he could not eat a single bite.
He had left what was right in front of him and spent his energy chasing what he did not yet have — and that was his mistake.