# The two chicken farmers: eggs or dung?

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-two-chicken-farmers
- Themes: negativity, memory, grief, letting go, gratitude
- Life situations: dwelling on the past, prolonged grief, bad day at work, relationship resentments, depression

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

One chicken farmer fills his basket with chicken dung, leaves the eggs to rot and stinks out his house; the other brings home the eggs for an omelette and the market and leaves the dung in the shed to become fertiliser. Ajahn Chah's question: when you gather the produce of your past, are you collecting dung or eggs?

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

The two chicken farmers story. My famous, favourite story and the reason why I keep repeating this is because people need to know this, so they don't suffer so much. Two chickens farmers, the first chicken farmer went into the shed early in the morning to collect the produce from the night before. Took in the basket and filled the basket full of chicken shit and he left the eggs in the shed to rot and he brought the shit back into the house, stunk the whole house out, he was a very dumb chicken farmer. There's a meaning to this story so stay with me. Second chicken farmer went into the shed with a basket and he put eggs in the basket and he left shit in the shed because it would become valuable fertilizer later on. But you don't bring it into the house with you, you bring the eggs back into the house so he could make an omelette for his family and sell the rest of the eggs in the market for cash. That's a smart chicken farmer, that's what you're supposed to do. And the moral of that story, and this was told by Ajahn Chah, he said when you collect the produce of your past and bring it into your present, what do you bring with you? When you collect what's done today or this week, what do you bring home with you? Are you shit collectors or egg collectors

## Teaching point

Leave the past's mistakes and tragedies to rot as fertiliser; carry home the good moments.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

One farmer carried the dung into the house and left the eggs to rot; the other brought home the eggs and left the dung to become fertiliser. At the end of a day, notice what you carry home: the slight and the parking ticket, or the kind word and the good meal. Let the bad bits lie where they fell; in time they enrich the soil.

## Source

- [Depression | Ajahn Brahm | 25-06-2010](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N_jjY7W_fs) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 21:11 to 22:32: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N_jjY7W_fs&t=1271s

Other tellings of this story:

- [No-Self Esteem | by Ajahn Brahm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXd09oGHD0I) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 44:23 to 45:03: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXd09oGHD0I&t=2663s
- [I Don't Own My Past | by Ajahn Brahm | 03 May 2013](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcSaCfuH-GU) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 2:43 to 4:04: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcSaCfuH-GU&t=163s
- [Is Everything Interconnected? | Ajahn Brahm | 13 Nov 2015](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbhLYRTbY3s) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 9:48 to 11:36: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbhLYRTbY3s&t=588s
- [Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 2 February 2019](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlaUiC1y6HY) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 4:28 to 5:44: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlaUiC1y6HY&t=268s