The Rice is Cooking

There is an old Chinese tale about a young man who is travelling to the Capitol to take the annual Imperial examinations, and although he is a smart, ambitious, up-and-coming young scholar, as he would have to be just to qualify to take the Imperial examinations, he is walking, because that was how people traveled in those days before fossil fuel and in that country without much pastureland for horses.   One day, he falls into the company of a somewhat travel-worn but genial old man and they walk along together.  When the sun sets and dusk falls there is no town or inn, so they camp by the road.  They make a fire and set a pot of rice to cook for their dinner. As they are sitting around the campfire, they hear the clatter and rumble of a carriage coming along the road.  It so happens that the carriage breaks down just as it is passing the two travelers and the young man goes to see if he can help.  Because he is bright, capable young man his help is indispensable to fixing the carriage, which belongs to a high official of the Capitol.  The official, impressed by the young man's abilities, offers to take the young man with him to the city in his carriage.  The young scholar accepts and says his good-byes to the old man.  He goes to the Capitol and is wildly successful in the Imperial examinations. Furthermore he is helped in his career by the high official and quickly rises through the ranks of the Imperial government to become a high official himself.  He becomes immensely wealthy and a favorite of the Emperor; he marries a beautiful princess and has many talented, good-looking children.  He has it all - an Elon Musk, a Bill Gates, a Richard Branson. Then it all goes to hell.  He is accused of treason and mis-management by the other officials.  He is thrown in jail and his family is exiled. After suffering many years of imprisonment he is finally released.  All his wealth is gone and his family scattered. Beaten and broken, pre-maturely aged, he finds a small room to live in and manages to make enough to live on as a scribe in the marketplace of the Capitol. One day, as he is sitting in the marketplace he sees an old man, somewhat travel-worn, somehow familiar; the old man smiles at him and says: Wake up!  And the young scholar wakes up: there is the clatter and rumble of a carriage passing, the old man is dreaming by the fire, and the pot of rice has not yet done cooking.