One day, the king was chatting with several blind men, and when the topic of elephants came up, they all admitted they had no idea what an elephant looked like.
The king ordered his attendants to bring forth an elephant, commanding the blind men to touch it and then describe its shape.
The blind men groped and felt, their faces gradually breaking into satisfied smiles.
The king asked, "What do you say an elephant looks like?" "Your Majesty, an elephant is like a long, large radish," said one blind man, who had touched a tusk. "Your Majesty, he's wrong—an elephant is like a winnowing basket," said another, who had touched an ear. A third blind man, hugging a leg, disagreed: "Your Majesty, they're both wrong—an elephant is a thick pillar."
Other blind men, each touching a different part of the elephant, argued over its shape: one who felt the back declared the elephant was like a bed, another who touched the belly insisted it was like a jar, and a third who grasped the tail claimed it was like a rope.
The blind men argued loudly, each insisting they were right, their faces flushed red with anger, and no one was willing to yield.
When the king and his ministers saw this, they couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Later, the idiom "Blind Men and the Elephant" (or "Blind Men Touching an Elephant") came to describe seeing only part of a problem, mistaking the part for the whole, and making hasty judgments.
Source: *Nirvana Sutra*
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "盲人摸象" came to describe how seeing only part of a problem, mistaking the part for the whole, and making hasty judgments.