An Evil May Sometimes Turn Out to be a Blessing in Disguise In ancient times, in the northern part of China had lived an old man whose name was Sai Weng. Nowadays we call him 'blessing.' He had bred a strong horse. One day, the horse ran away to the other country. The village people came to comfort him. He smiled calmly and said: "how do you know this is not a fortune?" Several months later, the lost horse returned with a fine horse! The neighbors came to congratulate. Sai Weng said: "how do you know it can not be evil?" Sure enough, his son fell off his horse and broke his leg. The neighbors came to comfort him. Sai Weng said: "how do you know this is not a fortune?" One year after the accident, foreign solders invaded the region. Young people in the village had been forcibly recruited, and nine out of ten died on the battlefield. Only his lame son stayed in the home, and saved his life. The idiom "the horse of Sai Weng(塞翁之馬*)" in Chinese is equivalent to the idiom "blessing in disguise" in English, but behind the phrase is a dramatic story. * "塞翁之馬" is used commonly in China, Korea and Japan.