An official of the ancient Southern State of Chu awarded a pot of wine to his followers after the ceremony of Spring Sacrifice to the ancestors.  One man said, "We have only one pot of wine. It's not enough for all of us but sufficient for one to drink to his full. How about we all draw a snake on the ground. He who finishes the first will have the wine."

The idea was agreed upon. Very soon, one man finished his snake. He was about to drink the wine when, seeing the others were still busy drawing, he said complacently " You're slow. Look! I still have time enough to add feet to my snake." But before he finished the feet, another man finished his snake and grabbed the wine pot from him, saying, "Nobody has ever seen a snake with feet! Yours is not a snake. The wine's mine now!"  With that he drank the wine. The man who added feet to the snake lost the wine which would have been his if not for his foolishness.

The fable tells people that going too far is as bad as not going far enough. One must have concrete ideas and goals for what he want to achieve, and in his pursuit to the goal, he must not be carried away by small victories.