Why didn't the laborers in Mat 20:7 run into the landowner earlier?

[TonyChanYT]

Matthew 20:

1“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2He agreed to pay them a denarius a for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7“ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

If they had been standing there all day long, wouldn't they have run into the landowner earlier?

Jesus told this as a parable. It wasn't meant to be a detailed account of a real narrative. It was a symbolic story to illustrate a spiritual lesson:

15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

 

[marks]

If they had been standing there all day long, wouldn't they have run into the landowner earlier?

Answering that question requires assuming one way or the other, as if we shouldn't just accept Jesus' saying. In Jesus' parable they had been standing there all day, and no one had hired them, why not simply let that be?

Much love!