Mending the Sheepfold
“Mending the fold after the sheep are lost” comes from the Strategies of the Warring States (Chu Ce IV): the statesman Zhuang Xin urged King Xiang of Chu, saying it is not too late to look for your hound once you see the hare, nor too late to mend the fold once the sheep are gone. It teaches that making a mistake is nothing to fear — what matters is fixing it in time.
Once upon a time, there was a shepherd who kept a pen full of sheep. Every day he took his flock to the green meadow to eat grass, and he was very happy.
One day, the neighbor walked past the sheep pen and noticed a hole in the fence. "There is a hole in your sheep pen — you must mend it soon", the neighbor kindly warned him.
The shepherd counted his sheep, and not one was missing. He said lazily, "Not a single sheep is missing — why bother mending it", and forgot all about the hole.
That very night, a big grey wolf slipped quietly through the hole into the sheep pen. It grabbed a little lamb and slipped away again.
In the morning, the shepherd came to count the sheep and found one little lamb was missing. His heart sank, and he wished he had listened to his neighbor.
Right away, he found some boards and nails and firmly mended the hole. He also checked the whole pen carefully and made it stronger.
From then on, not one more sheep was ever lost. The shepherd often told people, "When you find a mistake, fix it at once — it is never too late".
