Archer Story
This is allegedly a Taoist tale.
The General and the Archer
In a time long past, a novice asked his master how he could know so many stories that he always had one appropriate to any situation. The bonze replied, "Let me tell you a story. In a time long past, there was a general who needed to find the strongest, bravest, and most skilled men to make up his army. One day, while walking along a road, he came to a wall, and on the wall were hundreds, no, thousands of arrows, each stuck precisely in the middle of a target. 'Such skill!' said the general. 'I must have this man for my army.' And he walked along the wall and eventually came to a man with a bow and a clutch of arrows. 'Are you the magnificent archer who shot all these arrows?' 'I am.' 'Such amazing skill! I must see you shoot.' And so the archer took up a position on the far side of the row, drew his bow and shot an arrow into the wall, then walked over and painted a target around the arrow. The General laughed. 'Perhaps I will not have you fight in the army. But I do need a quartermaster.' So you see, it is not a matter of finding a story to fit the occasion; it is a matter of finding the occasion to fit the story."