Once upon a time, there was a snipe foraging near the river. It had a long beak and slender legs. It walked back and forth on the river beach, looking for delicious food. One day, it saw a clam opening its shell to sunbathe, revealing its tender flesh inside. The snipe thought to itself, "This is a wonderful meal." So it flew over and pecked at the clam's flesh with its long beak.
The clam was enjoying the sun comfortably when suddenly it felt a pain. It turned out that the snipe had come to peck it. The clam was very angry. Immediately, it closed its shell and tightly clamped the snipe's beak. The snipe couldn't pull out its beak no matter how hard it tried. Angry and impatient, it shook its head desperately, trying to break free from the clam's shell.
The snipe said to the clam, "Let me go quickly, or you'll be in trouble!" The clam also said unyieldingly, "Humph, you pecked me first. I won't let you go. If you don't apologize today, don't even think about leaving!" So the two of them were at a stalemate on the river beach, neither willing to give in.
After a while, a fisherman came to the river beach with a fishing net on his shoulder. From a distance, he saw the scene of the snipe and the clam fighting each other, and he was overjoyed. The fisherman thought to himself, "This is really effortless." So he quietly approached and caught both the snipe and the clam at once.
This story tells us that if both sides are in a deadlock and refuse to give in to each other, a third party will benefit. Therefore, we should know how to be modest and yielding to each other in life.
