much ado about nothing
“look at that! out manager gave us a bottle of wine, today!” one of the men said. “hooray!” “but…it is too little, not enough for everyone. i have no idea. what we can do?” ”well, let me see, who will enjoy the bottle of wine?” they thought and thought, suddenly, “i got an idea!” one of them said, “we can have a contest, we can draw a snake. do you agree?” “good idea!” they said.
then, they started drawing their pictures. everybody wanted the bottle of wine. a few minutes later, one of the men finished his picture. he thought: i won! but i still have time, what can i do? maybe i can give the snake four legs. yeah! so he started drawing the legs. in the mean time, another person finished. he cried: ”i win!” “no, i am the winner!” the first person said. “you?” “look at my picture, i just gave the snake four legs!” the person said. “do you hear that? he gave the snake four legs! the snake doesn’t have legs, so the wine is mine!”
the proverb “adding feet to a drawing of a snake” refers to wasting true and energy on unnecessary embellishments. knowing when to stop is just as important as making a good start.