Everywhere in Java, Sumatra, and Celebes, the people know of two men named Guno and Koyo, and whenever they hear of them, they smile. For the name Guno means "helpful" and Guno is really a very unhelpful man; and while Koyo's name means "rich," Koyo in fact ever has any money at all. Whatever he manages to get his hands on, Guno the "helpful" one helps him lose.
It is said that one time Guno persuaded Koyo to go with him to rob an old hadji. They crept in the night to the old man's house and began to dig a hole under the wall. When the hole was large enough for a man to enter, Guno crawled through. He silently gathered the valuables of the sleeping hadji and handed them out through the hole to Koyo, who piled them neatly on the ground. As Guno prepared to go out, he saw the hadji's colorful robe hanging on a peg. He took the robe down and dressed himself in it. He said to himself, "I will soil my new robe if I crawl out the way I came in." So, instead of going through the hole, he went to the door, unlocked it, and stepped out.
Koyo, expecting Guno to appear through the hole, was startled. Seeing the dignified robed figure coming out of the door, he thought it was the hadji, and that Guno was still inside
"Ai! The hadji!" Koyo screamed.
And leaving the pile of loot where he had placed it on the ground, he began to run. Guno, thinking the hadji was behind him, hastily threw his new robe away and fled after Koyo.
Because the two of them made so much noise fleeing through the village, the neighbors were awakened, and they came out with sticks and sickles to pursue them.
Guno and Koyo ran across the open fields until they came panting to the edge of the river.
"Ah, we are lost!" Koyo groaned. "We'll either be caught and beaten, or we will drown in the flooded river!"
"The river isn't flooded," Guno said helpfully. "Indeed the river is flooded," Koyo said.
"No, it certainly is not flooded." Guno said. "If it were in flood t would be muddy and dark. But it is so clear you can almost see the bottom."
Koyo looked. It was true. Faintly in the starlight he could see the rocks in the bottom of the river.
"Well," he said nervously, "you go first and tell me how it is." So Guno held his breath, closed his eyes, and leaped from the rocky ledge.
But the riverbed was dry, there was no water in it at all, and Guno fell into the gravel and stones below.
As he lay there in great surprise, he heard Koyo shouting to him from the ledge above:
"How is it? How is it?
Guno was embarrassed. So he began to make swimming motions with his hands and legs as he lay on the bottom of the dry riverbed, and he called out:
"It's fine below, don't you see me?"
So Koyo, too, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and leaped from the ledge. He landed next to Guno, sprawling in the dry river gravel.
Guno, still waving his arms as though he were swimming turned to Koyo and said:
"You can see now that I was right. The river is not in flood."
The people of the village arrived on the ledge. They looked down and shouted at the two men to come out and take their punishment. In terror, Koyo also began to make swimming motions The villagers, seeing Guno and Koyo swimming this way in a river that had been dry for months, put down their weapons and laughed. They couldn't bring themselves to punish silly fugitives.
So today whenever a person tries to get out of a predicament by a ridiculous act, someone is sure to say:
"Don't go swimming in a dry riverbed."
Source
Lapid, Milagros and Serrano, Josephine. English Communication Arts and Skills through Afro-Asian Literature. 6th ed., Phoenix Publishing House, 2010.
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