Proverbial myth No, 9: A fool judges people by the presents they give him.....Chinese Proverb

Presents are more cultural and some cultures (especially those who value ostentations as virtue) are intoxicated by gifts and presents especially on special occasions…  I would rather say that a fool judges people by what he hears from others

Personally, I have great respect for Socrates esp for his famous cross questionings. For me he is symbol of wisdom and instead of dissecting this proverb, I would better to share one of his cross questionings and let you contrast,

…………… One day in one of the street of Athens a man approached Socrates and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?”

“Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything I’d like you to pass a little test by answering by three simple questions”

Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my friend,………………………… Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man said, “Actually I just heard about it and ...”

“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not…. OK, now the second question…………………………… Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?”

“No, on the contrary…”

“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true….. OK, still it might be worthy of sharing if your answer to my third question is positive…………… Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really …”

“Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”