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Tiếng Việt

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Something you already have is worth more than something better you might not get.

Thà chắc ít còn hơn hão nhiều.

Cái đang cầm trong tay quý hơn cái còn ở đâu đó.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Examples

  • He took the offer rather than wait — a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

    Anh ấy nhận lời đề nghị ngay chứ không chờ đợi — thà chắc ít còn hơn hão nhiều.

  • She kept the steady job. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

    Cô ấy giữ lại công việc ổn định. Thà chắc ít còn hơn hão nhiều.

Origin

In short

Older than falconry's decline, the proverb once described a literal trade: a trained hawk on the glove against whatever might still be flushed from cover.

Falconers of the medieval period valued a bird already on the glove far above the ones still in the hedgerow. A trained hawk represented months of patient work, while the birds in the bush were a hope and nothing more.

The phrase surfaces in English print by the fifteenth century and settles into its modern shape in John Ray's 1670 collection of proverbs. Its logic has outlived its setting entirely — few who use it now have ever handled a hawk.

What keeps it alive is that the arithmetic never changes. A certain smaller gain beats an uncertain larger one whenever the uncertainty is real, which is most of the time.

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