There's a classic fable (of Nasruddin Hodja tradition?) where the protagonist agrees that he'll teach the king's donkey to speak in 7 years; and when his friends warn him that he'll be executed as he will fail in this task, he responds - ah, the pay is good and many things can happen in 7 years, perhaps the king will die, perhaps I will die, likely the donkey will die, so the problem will eventually go away..