The Blind Men and the Elephant

Footsteps came from the end of the road, heavy and even, and each step made the ground shake a little. Then a long shadow fell and swallowed a patch of noon sun. A thick rope creaked. Dust jumped up every time a foot as wide as a round serving tray came down.

Someone was leading an elephant past.

By the roadside that day sat five blind fortune-tellers. They had set out their tables at dawn, and not one customer had stopped to ask for a reading. The sun was hot, the wind was still, and the noon dragged. The five were sitting glumly when a strange noise reached them from the edge of the village.

"An elephant!" a passer-by called out. "The elephant is coming through!"

The five fortune-tellers stirred at once. One tugged at another. "What is an elephant like? I have never touched one." "Neither have I." Not one of the five had any idea what shape an elephant had.

So they made their way into the middle of the road and asked the man leading the elephant to stop, just long enough to let them feel it. He agreed and halted for a moment. Each fortune-teller chose a spot and reached out a hand.

The first touched the trunk. It felt soft and long and loose, with a tapering end, and it kept twisting under his fingers. He nodded to himself, already certain. "The elephant is like a leech!" he announced.

The second had both arms around a tusk. It was hard, straight and smooth, as thick as a wrist. He shook his head. "No, it is stiff and straight, like a carrying pole!"

The third was feeling an ear. It was thin and flat, as big as a flat tray, and it flapped in the breeze. He shook his head too. "Not at all. It is broad and flat, like a winnowing fan for grain!"

The fourth held a leg. It was huge and round and solid, and he could not get his arms around it. "Wrong," he declared. "It stands tall, like the pillar of a communal house!"

The fifth had hold of the tail. It was short and small, with a tuft of hair at the end, and it felt tiny in his hand. He nodded as he stroked it. "Who says so? It is short and stubby, like a worn-out broom!"

The man leading the elephant quietly walked on. The elephant knew nothing of all this. It plodded along, its four heavy feet touching down one after another, and its huge shadow slowly faded behind the bamboo hedge at the end of the village.

This is a Vietnamese fable, collected by the scholar Nguyễn Đổng Chi in his Treasury of Vietnamese Folktales. It has long been part of the Tiếng Việt textbooks for primary school. Its name, thầy bói xem voi, became an idiom in Vietnamese, and everyone understands it at once.

Five fortune-tellers were left standing by the road. Each was pleased with what his own hands had found. Each was sure he knew what an elephant was.

And so the quarrel began.

The one who had felt the trunk said, "A leech, plainly a leech. I touched it with my own hand."

The one who had felt the tusk said, "A carrying pole. Something that hard, and you call it a leech?"

The one who had felt the ear said, "A winnowing fan. It was flat and wide, I tell you."

The one who had felt the leg said, "A pillar of a communal house. I could not get my arms around it."

The one who had felt the tail said, "A broom. Short and stubby, with hair at the end."

At first the five argued in low voices. Little by little they grew louder. Then louder still. No one would listen, and no one would give way.

The argument climbed from words to hands and feet, from shouting to shoving.

Then the five fortune-tellers flew at one another and fought in the middle of the road, thumping and flailing in a cloud of dust. They fought until some were bleeding, and still not one would give way to another.

Far down the road, the elephant walked on. Its four feet were heavy, every step slow and sure. Its trunk swung. Its tail flicked gently. Its shadow stretched long across the ground and drew back, stretched long and drew back, in time with its steps. It did not look behind. It did not stop. Behind it the shouting still rang out and the dust had not settled. And the five fortune-tellers were still fighting to settle what an elephant was.