Another Thai Proverb Tale is about Thai proverb that means “Danger breeds best on too much boldness”
It is good to be bold but sometimes there is a fine line drawn between “bold” and “too bold”.
Let’s read the tale “The Bold Man” to find out what this proverb is about.
To view full picture in PDF please click the link The Bold Man
It had rained all night and early in the morning, the villagers found something strange on the wet ground. They were very frightened of those fresh tiger tracks around the village.
“This tiger must have come to attack the animals in our village,” said one villager to the others.
“Aah, it’s scary! We’re not safe anymore,” another villager was worried.
Berm is one of the strongest men among those villagers. He laughed and spoke loudly, “Ha-ha, just only a tiger, how come all of you’re so scared? If I see it, I’ll catch it and sell its skin.”
And then Berm, the bold man, volunteered to get rid of that tiger by himself. But everyone over there disagreed. “Oh, no! You shouldn’t do that. It’s too dangerous to go alone,” the oldest villager warned Berm.
“Don’t worry, the bold man like me is afraid of nothing,” Berm quickly answered back.
No matter how many villagers warned him against traveling alone into the forest to hunt that tiger, Berm still decided to do so.
In the middle of the forest, that tiger was silently staring at Berm from its hiding place on a cliff. Without knowing there was trouble ahead, Berm walked boldly with a long sword in his hand until he was close to that cliff. “Come out, come out, let me get your skin!” Berm yelled.
What happened after that was that tiger jumped right over Berm and dug its sharp claws into his tender flesh. His shirt was torn and stained with his blood. He had never even thought of fighting back because at that moment he did not have any strength left to hold his sword. Then Berm realized that this was a horrible mistake.
Fortunately, many villagers still worried about Berm. So, they were all armed with guns and quietly followed him into the forest. “Bang!” one of them had shot that tiger before it could have killed Berm.
Then the oldest villager said to “Berm, the bold man”, “Be bold but not too bold because danger breeds best on too much boldness.”