The Brave Old Word — the farmer Da Lee and his neighbors

Once upon a time, in a large manor lived the rich farmer Da Lee. Hanging at his front door was a large, beautiful bell. When the wind blew, the bell rang merrily and sounded far away. One of his neighbors, Er Wang, had designs on the bell for a long time. One night, Wang walked by the manor’s front door. The moon was clear and the front door was deserted. He couldn’t help but sneak close to the door, admiring the beautiful bell. For a moment, he cried in his mind, “How wonderful to hang it in my house. I must get you tonight.” He raised his hands, almost touched the bell. “Alas, how close!” he stopped short at the last second. “It will make a loud sound once I touch it. I almost got myself caught. Let me go home.”

But he couldn’t put out the fire in his heart. Sitting in a corner, he looked up at the bell and thought hard for a solution. Suddenly he was like struck by lightning. “It’s the ears that hear the sound. Covering the ears, we won’t be able to hear it ring anymore.” He took off his clothes and wrapped them around his ears. All at once, the sounds were gone, the cricket songs, the frog croaks. Thrilled by the genius idea, he returned to the front door, ears covered. He pulled down the bell, which set off a sharp sound right way. Hearing nothing, he ran for home with the bell in hand. But he only made a few steps before the angry Da Lee and his servants caught him.

The theft raised a huge alarm to Da Lee. He had more valuable treasures in the house — they needed a safer place rather than the jewel boxes. After days of search, he came across the farm field at the back of the house. One night, he put one of his major treasures, 300 Liang of silver (app. 35lbs), in a jar and took it to the field. He dug a deep hole and put the jar inside, before filling the soil back up like nothing hidden there.

He got the sense of security back, but only for a short time. Soon he sensed his neighbors were acting weird around his house. They come to the field more often, sometimes even strangers showed up. Everyone looked so suspicious. “Do they all know what I have hidden there?“ the anxiety returned and grew bigger every day. But soon Lee got another idea. He made a signpost with a line that read “There is No 300liang Silver Buried Here.” One night, he sneaked to the hidden spot on the field and stuck the post on the top. “No one would bother to come here now,” he murmured, a big relief in his mind. “Even the thieves would walk away.”

So much absorbed with the signpost, Lee had no idea that another neighbor of his, San Zhang, peeped at him over the wall. He came back home and had a sound sleep, only woken up by his servants in the early morning. He was led to the field, where he saw a big mess at the hidden spot. The silver was gone. A signpost stood on top -- a totally new sign, it read “There was 300 liang silver buried here. Your neighbor San Zhang didn’t steal it.”

After sending two neighbors to the jail, though unintentionally, Lee grew more suspicious about his neighbors. But unfortunately, it didn’t stop him from losing his property for the third time. One day he went out for the logging works. When he got to the woods on the mountain, he couldn’t found his chopping ax in the tool cart. Having searched everywhere in vain, he started to look through his neighbors. Quickly, he remembered that one of his neighbors, Si Zhao, visited his house two days ago. He launched the spy upon this neighbor right away.

The more he watched, the more suspicious he became. Zhao was now talking with wary eyes, greeting with a sense of unease, and smiling in such an awkward manner. “Huh~ he is so weird. I have never seen him act like this before,” Lee was excited by what he’d found. “He used to visit us so often. He now stops coming at all. ” The doubts kept coming, and his suspicion grew into confidence. One day he decided to confront his neighbor for the theft. Before taking the action, he went out and walked along the mountain trail to calm himself. For a moment he tripped over a heavy stick. It was his ax! It just dropped out of the tool cart itself!

Lee felt sorry for his neighbor and glad he didn’t take the action too soon. But what shocked him the most was that the cues he had observed about his neighbor were all gone. Zhao now talked with honest eyes, greeted with great ease, and smiled so naturally.

“There is no trace at all to tell that he’s a theft,” Lee said to himself in great perplexity. He didn’t know, sometimes you could cheat yourself, and by extension, you think you could cheat others. Then it often ended up in misery and absurdity.