Cautionary Tale of a Nail

A tradesman transacted a good morning's business at a fair and filled his bags with gold and silver. He wanted to reach home by nightfall, so he strapped his bags of money to his saddle and rode off on his steed.

At noon he stopped in a small town for food. As he was about to set out again, the stable-boy brought his horse and said: "Sir, a nail is wanting in the shoe on the left hind foot of your animal."

"Then let it be wanting," replied the tradesman. "I’m in a hurry and the shoe will doubtless hold for as long as I have yet to travel."

Late in the afternoon he stopped again, this time to feed his horse. And at this place another boy told him a nail was wanting in the horse’s shoe and asked whether he should take the horse to a farrier.

“No, no, let it be!” replied the tradesman. “It’ll last the couple of hours I have yet to travel and I’m in haste.” And he rode off.

But with the twilight his horse began to limp. From limping the horse soon began stumbling. The tradesman prodded the animal onward, but the horse fell to the ground and broke a leg as the money bags tumbled loose and spilled the gold and silver into a ravine.

The tradesman recovered what little money he could in the darkness and wandered off toward home on foot, leaving his badly injured horse behind.

“All this misfortune," he muttered to himself, "is owing to haste and the want of a nail.”

~ Anonymous folk tale