How to Read “A pigeon’s bean spending”
Hato no mame tsukai
Meaning of “A pigeon’s bean spending”
“A pigeon’s bean spending” is a proverb that describes someone who takes forever to return from an errand because they keep making detours along the way.
It refers to situations where someone goes out to do a task but stops here and there, gets distracted by other things, and takes much longer than expected, as if they forgot their original purpose.
This proverb is mainly used when someone is asked to do a simple errand but takes surprisingly long to complete it.
It describes situations where the person waiting thinks, “Where are they and what are they doing?”
For example, you ask a child to buy something but they play with friends and don’t come home. Or you ask a coworker to deliver documents but they get caught up chatting in another department.
In such cases, people say “It’s just like a pigeon’s bean spending.”
Even today, this expression is understood as a gentle warning when asking someone to run an errand, or as a mild way to scold someone who takes too long to return.
Origin and Etymology
There don’t seem to be clear written records about the origin of this proverb. However, we can make interesting observations from the words that make it up.
Pigeons have long been familiar birds in human life. They’re famous for serving as carrier pigeons to deliver letters.
But pigeons actually have a habit of eating beans and other legumes with great enthusiasm.
The expression “bean spending” is thought to imagine a situation where you send a pigeon to carry beans or buy beans.
Imagine what would happen if you sent a pigeon to buy beans. The pigeon might eat the beans if it found some along the way.
Or it might discover a bean field, stop there, become satisfied, and never return.
In other words, asking a pigeon to run an errand involving beans—its favorite food—is a reckless attempt doomed to fail from the start.
This expression probably came from everyday experiences of asking someone to do an errand and having them take forever to return.
People connected such situations with pigeon behavior and expressed it humorously yet accurately. That’s how this proverb is thought to have been born.
Interesting Facts
Pigeons are actually known for having very strong homing instincts. They could work as carrier pigeons precisely because of this excellent ability to return home.
However, in this proverb, even pigeons forget their original mission when faced with the temptation of beans. This creates a humorous scenario.
In other words, the proverb contains an observation about human nature: even the most trustworthy beings can’t resist their instincts when faced with their favorite things.
Beans have held an important place in Japanese food culture. Soybeans, azuki beans, fava beans, and various other beans were eaten regularly in daily life.
Beans keep well and are highly nutritious, so they were likely handled frequently as errand items.
That’s why the scenario of going to buy beans functioned as an easy-to-understand example rooted in people’s everyday lives.
Usage Examples
- I asked my son to buy milk, but he played with friends and didn’t come home for two hours—truly a pigeon’s bean spending
- I asked him to copy some documents, but he started another job along the way and didn’t return—this is exactly a pigeon’s bean spending
Universal Wisdom
The proverb “A pigeon’s bean spending” contains deep insight into the essential nature of human beings.
It reveals the truth about how easily we get sidetracked while heading toward our goals.
Everyone starts out seriously intending to complete their errand. But when they encounter something attractive along the way, they forget their original purpose.
This isn’t deliberate slacking off. Rather, it’s a natural human trait.
Curiosity, interest, temptation, and the enjoyment of the present moment—these often have stronger power than reason or sense of responsibility.
This proverb has been passed down for so long because it captures a universal phenomenon that everyone experiences.
As children, we met friends during errands and ended up playing with them. As adults, we still get distracted by other things while working on one task.
We are all, to varying degrees, engaged in “a pigeon’s bean spending.”
What’s interesting is that this proverb contains warm understanding of humanity rather than criticism.
The inability to perfectly accomplish our goals is part of being human.
Our ancestors may have thought that while acknowledging this weakness, we need to watch out for each other and support one another because of it.
When AI Hears This
A person who keeps scattering beans trying to catch a pigeon is actually caught in a double psychological trap.
The first is the feeling that “I’ve used so many beans already, it would be wasteful to stop now.” This is called the sunk cost fallacy.
The second is the unwillingness to admit “I wasted the beans.” This is loss aversion bias.
What’s interesting is that the human brain doesn’t treat gains and losses symmetrically.
According to behavioral economist Kahneman’s research, people feel the pain of losing 10,000 yen about twice as strongly as the joy of gaining 10,000 yen.
In other words, giving up on the pigeon doesn’t just mean losing beans—it involves psychological pain twice as intense.
So people tell themselves “Maybe just a few more beans will catch it” and invest more beans trying to recover their loss.
This structure perfectly matches a behavior in the investment world called “averaging down.”
It’s the psychology of investors who buy more of a falling stock thinking “If I lower my average purchase price.”
Rationally speaking, the amount of beans used in the past should be irrelevant to future decisions.
What matters is only the future expected value: “Is the probability of actually catching the pigeon high with the additional beans I’ll use from now?”
However, the human brain is strongly pulled by past investment amounts and becomes unable to cut losses calmly.
Lessons for Today
What this proverb teaches us today is the importance of knowing the limits of our own attention and having the wisdom to deal with it.
We are exposed to countless stimuli every day. Smartphone notifications, social media updates, attractive advertisements.
Even when we try to concentrate on one thing, we get distracted by temptations that appear one after another.
This proverb teaches us that this isn’t weakness of will—it’s the natural trait of human beings.
What’s important is admitting that we’re prone to becoming engaged in “a pigeon’s bean spending.” Then we can plan accordingly.
When we have important errands, we deliberately choose routes where we can’t make detours. We leave our smartphones in another room.
We create environments that keep temptations away. These small strategies become the power to achieve our goals.
It also helps us be kinder to others. When someone is late for an appointment, if we think “This person also got caught up in a pigeon’s bean spending,” we can feel understanding rather than anger.
Acknowledging each other’s humanity is the first step toward building better relationships.
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