One day Zhuanzi ( 莊子 ) went through forest , on the way he saw a tree flourishing with many branches and leafs An axman was there but he didn ' t cut the tree Zhuanzi asked reason why he didn ' t chop down And the axman answered " the tree is useless at all " Zhuanzi said " the tree live long because of it ' s useless for material usage " Zhuanzi went down from the mountain and dropped in old friend ' s house staying a couple of days His friend welcomed Zhuanzi and had his servant make dish of goose The servant asked " which one is will do a good ? one goose make noise well the other neither dose " The landlord replied " slain the one can ' t cry " The next day his student asked Zhuanzi " yesterday the tree in the forest can live long due to it ' s useless but the goose come to death because of it ' s useless which side do you favor on sir ? Zhuanzi replied smiling . .." do not lean on only one side "