The farmer’s son was returning from the market with a crate of chickens his father had entrusted to him, when all of a sudden the box fell and broke open. Chickens scurried off in different directions, but the boy walked all over the neighborhood, retrieving the birds and returning them to the repaired crate. Hoping he had found them all, the boy returned home. “Pa, the chickens got loose,” the boy told his father reluctantly, “but I managed to find all nine of them.” “You did well, son,” the farmer said, “because you left with only six.”