A long time ago, an important Chinese official came to Vietnam and began to boast that he could draw faster than anyone else in the world.
A Vietnamese named Kinh heard this, came to the official and said:
- I, sir, can compete with you. Let's see which of the two of us draws faster.
The official listened to the Vietnamese, grinned arrogantly and replied:
- Let them hit the drum just once: the sound won’t stop yet, and I’ll already draw you a beast.
-What animal? - asks Kin.
“Anyone,” the official answers.
– Is it really quick to draw just one animal until the sound of the drum subsides? – says Kin. “During this time I will draw not just one, but ten.”
And so the servants brought each of the competitors a bowl of ink, a brush and a sheet of paper.
As soon as the drum was struck, Kin dipped all ten fingers into the ink, and immediately ten winding lines appeared on a piece of paper.
During this time the official managed to draw a bird, turned around and asked:
-What were you painting?
- Ten animals.
- What kind of animals are these?
– Isn’t it clear? Dragons.
- Dragons?! – the official was surprised.
- Well, if not dragons, then earthworms. The official was even more surprised, standing, his eyes bulging.
And Kin says again:
“You just don’t know that earthworms are the same dragons that the Chinese worship, only they live in the ground.”
The official heard this, respectfully folded his hands, bowed and admitted that Kin was both savvy and quicker in his work.
Since then, the expression has become popular among the people: “What works is like drawing worms.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru