One of Yang Tzu's neighbors, who lost a sheep, sent all his men out to find it, and asked Yang Tzu's servant to join in the search.
" What !" exclaimed Yang Tzu. " Do you need all those men to find one sheep ?"
" There are so many paths it may have taken," the neighbor explained. When his servant returned, Yang Tzu asked him " Well, did you find the sheep ?"
He answered that they had not. Then Yang Tzu asked how they had failed o find it.
" There are too many paths," replied the servant. One path leads to another, and we didn't know which to take, so we had to come back.
At that Yang Tzu looked very thoughtful. He was silent for a long time, and did not smile all day.
His pupils were surprised.
" A sheep is a trifle," they said, " and this wasn't even yours. Why should you stop talking and smiling ?"
Yang Tzu did not answer, and his pupils were puzzled.
One of them, Meng-sun Yang, went out to describe what had happened to Hsin-tu Tzu.
" When there are too many paths," said Hsin-tu Tzu, " a man cannot find his sheep. When a student has too many interests, he fritters away his time. The source of all knowledge is one, but the branches of learning are many. Only by returning to the primal truth can a man avoid losing his way. You are Yang Tzu's pupil and study from him, yet you seem to have failed completely to understand him.