Thousand gold for horse bones

There was a king who was willing to pay a thousand pieces of gold for a horse that could run a thousand li without stopping. However, he tried in vain for three years to find such a steed.

Then one subject offered: “let me look for a horse for your Majesty.”
Then king agreed to this.

After three months this man came back, having spent five hundred pieces of gold on a horse’s skull.

The king was most enraged.
“I want a live horse!” he roared. ”What use is a dead horse to me? Why spend five hundred pieces of gold on nothing?”

But the man replied: “If you will spend five hundred pieces of gold on a dead horse, won’t you give much more for a live one? When people hear of this, they will know you are really willing to pay for a good horse, and will quickly send you their best.”

Sure enough, in less than a year the king succeeded in buying three excellent horses.

Allegorical Meaning

The king’s outrage—”Spending 500 gold on a dead horse?!”—highlights conventional wisdom’s failure. Most people would believe that the dead horse bone is literally worthless and 500 gold for horse corpse is literally extravagant “waste.”

Yet within 12 months, the kingdom acquires three legendary steeds.

The fable reveals: True value lies not in the object purchased, but in the narrative sold. It is so called Symbolic Investment.

Guo Wei, the advisor who bought the horse corpse, deploys the costly signaling to transform the king from a transactional buyer into a legendary patron. Instead of looking for good horse, Guo Wei’s strategy invites horses to come to him.

When scarcity persists, overpay conspicuously for the smallest symbol of what you seek. The market will bring you the rest.

This parable teaches us to look beyond immediate gains and prioritize long-term vision. To attract talent, one must visibly demonstrate genuine appreciation for abilities.

This conclusion from the “Thousand Gold for Horse Bones” story (Warring States Strategies) pioneered China’s earliest talent strategy theory: symbolic actions create gravitational pull for real capability.