Count not the chickens before they are hatched.

Count not the chickens before they are hatched.

This maxim advises not to count the number of chickens before they are hatched as all the eggs laid by a hen do not hatch into a chicken. The future resultant of a business is quite unwise and leads to lamentation. Similarly it is not wise to name the child before it is born. The maxim also advises who are with wrong estimations of their undertakings and so they imagine the results above their own capabilities.


Many people start imagining about big fortunes even before beginning of their undertakings of any enterprises. Many people start day dreaming about their projects and start building castles in the air even before they start their projects properly. There is a very old Oriya story in which a man goes to the beach and buys some fish. He sees a man measuring the sand with a bowl and asks him who he is… the man replies he is bidata the god of fate and he is deciding how much food each man will get on the particular day. He challenges the god to stop him from having the fish on that particular night and so he goes back to his house and stores the fish and goes out to work. When he returns back he finds a cat eating the fish and loses in his challenges. Just like the man we always have a great impression about ourselves and try to achieve things beyond our means.


Covet all. Lose all.

This proverb warns us that if one who has too much greediness will loose everything one has. It also indirectly instructs us not to be greedy on others possessions to own them. If it is so, it will lead to loose everything that he possesses.


This proverb has profound meaning and teaches the sufficiency of possession to man. If a person desires to possess more than enough of his need then his desires multiply. Because of his multiplied desires, he adopts fair means to attain and lose his possessions that he has in hand too. The covetousness induces a man to acquire the things he desires at any cost. It increases little by little and finally it leads to lose everything. The greedy mind always plans to possess things by hooks or by crooks. But a contented mind gets appeased with what is sufficed to his needs. When greediness sprouts in one’s mind, it should be stripped off. Otherwise it will lead him to pervasion.


Once, an old lady became blind and called in a doctor to treat her. The doctor asked her a large fee. She agreed to pay if she was cured but nothing if not. He coveted the lady’s furniture. The doctor called on her daily but delayed the cure. Everyday he took away some of her furniture. At last when he had cured, he demanded his fees. But the lady refused to pay saying that she was not completely cured as she could not see her furniture. The doctor took the case to the court. The judge understood what the doctor had done, gave the verdict in favor of the old lady. The judge ordered the doctor to replace all the furniture and also forfeit his right to claim his bill.