All the other chickens were really annoyed by the white hen’s never-ending blabber. A brown hen got so annoyed that she challenged the white hen to a bet. “Whichever one of us ends up with the most chicks will win the other’s food for a day,” said the brown hen, explaining the bet.

“Sure! It’s on!” agreed the white hen confidently, while counting the brown hen’s eggs. There were a total of five eggs. “There is no way brown hen is going to beat me,” thought the white hen, who had ten eggs. So the bet was on.

About three weeks later, all of the brown hen’s eggs hatched into chicks. But only two chicks emerged from the white hen’s eggs. She thought some eggs could still have chicks in them. So the white hen continued to wait.

A week later, the white hen gave up. It had already been more than a month, the average egg hatches in three weeks. So she cracked all the other eggs just to see if anything inside at all. All they contained were yolk and albumin, or egg white. The white hen felt so embarrassed.

The only thing that the white hen could do now was go to the brown hen and tell her the truth. She carried her food while she walked up to the brown hen and said, “I only had two chicks, so I guess you win the bet.” She handed the food to the brown hen and walked away shamefully.

Then suddenly the brown hen yelled, “Stop!” Then she explained, “You should never have assumed that you were going to have that many chicks. You should never count your chickens before they hatch.”

From that day on, the white hen never assumed uncertain things ever again, having learned a lesson from the brown hen.

The proverb “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” means that you should never assume something that you don’t completely know. As you can see, the white hen assumed she was going to receive ten chicks, but instead ended up getting only two. So that an example of why you should always remember, don’t count your chickens before they hatch.