A man mistakenly thought he spotted gold in a pond, and dove in to retrieve it. After coming up empty handed and stirring up the water's mud, he got out of the pond and waited for the mud to settle. When it did, he once again saw what he thought was gold, and dove in to get it.
He got out and sat by the pond for a few minutes, and then his father came walking by and said, "Why are you all wet and tired?"
"I spotted gold in the lake, and I dove in to get it, but all to no avail."
The father looked at the pond, which had settled down again, and saw the gold; but he could tell that it was actually a reflection of gold on a tree behind them. He pointed to the tree's gold, and his son went up and got it.
After being whipped by the King, a man tried treating his wounds by rubbing horse feces on them. Someone else noticed this, and excitedly thought, "I have discovered a magnificent way to heal wounds from a whip's lashes." He went to his home and ordered his child to whip him severely on the back--and after the child obeyed, the man happily tried out his newly discovered remedy.