In the State of Zheng, there was a man who wanted to go into town to buy a pair of new shoes.
Before leaving home, he measured his foot with a piece of straw1 for size. After he arrived at the town and entered a shoeshop, he put his hand into his pocket only to find that in his haste2 he had left the measurement3 at home. Thereupon, he turned round andstarted for home. But when he rushed back to the shoeshop with the measurement, the shop had closed. As a result, he had busied himself for nothing.
Later, someone asked him: "Were you buying shoes for yourself or for others?"
He answered: "For myself."
Someone else asked him: "Don't you have your feet on yourself? You need only to try on shoes with your feet to get the right size. Why did you go back home to f
