Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library) (11 page)

A horse dealer had an excellent animal for sale, but at the market it attracted no customers. So he went to see the famous horse trainer Po Lo. “In three days no one has noticed my superb horse,” he said. “What I’d like you to do is to walk around the horse and inspect it, then walk away—but look back. For this I’ll give you a morning’s profit from my other sales.” Po Lo circled the horse and examined it, walked away, but looked back; and within the day the horse was sold for ten times what it was worth.

—
Chan Kuo Ts’e

The art of swindling is becoming ever more ingenious. There was an old man of Chinling who took some silver ingots to the money changer’s shop at the North Gate Bridge, intending to exchange them for copper coins. He made a point of haggling over the silver content, talking on and on, until a young man came in from outside. The young man’s manner was most respectful. He hailed the old man and said, “Your son had some business in Changchou that I was involved in. He gave me a letter and some silver ingots to deliver to you. I was on my way to your residence when I happened to see you in here.” The young man handed over the silver, saluted the old man, and left.

The old man tore open the letter and said to the money changer, “My eyesight is not good enough to read this letter from my son. Could I trouble you to read it to me?” The money changer complied. The letter dealt with petty family matters and closed with the words, “The accompanying ten taels of fine silver is for your household needs.” Looking pleased, the old man said, “Why don’t you give me back my silver? Never mind about testing the silver content. According to my son’s letter, these fine silver ingots he has sent me weigh exactly ten taels, so let’s exchange them for the copper cash.”

The shopkeeper put the new silver on the scales and saw that its weight was 11.3 taels. He supposed that the son had been too busy to check the weight when he sent the letter and had written ten taels as an approximation. “The old man can’t weigh it himself,” the shopkeeper reasoned. “I may as well let the error stand
and keep the difference.” So he gave the old man nine thousand copper cash, the current rate of exchange for ten taels of fine silver.

The old man hauled his coppers away. Soon another customer in the shop began snickering. “It looks like the boss has been cheated. That old man has been a con artist in fake silver for years. I spotted him when he came in, but I was afraid to mention it with him in the shop.”

The money changer cut open the silver and found that it was lead inside, which upset him terribly. He thanked the stranger and asked him the old man’s address. “He lives about a mile from here,” said the customer, “and there’s still time to catch up with him. But he’s my neighbor, and if he finds out I’ve given him away, he’ll get even somehow. So I’ll tell you where to look, but leave me out of it.”

Naturally the shopkeeper wanted the man to go with him. “If you’d only take me to the neighborhood and point out his place, you could leave. The old man would never know who told me.” The stranger was still reluctant to become involved, but when the shopkeeper offered him three taels of silver, he agreed as if he had no choice.

Together the money changer and the stranger went out of the Han Hsi Gate. Far ahead they could see the old man placing coppers on the counter of a wineshop and drinking with some others. Pointing, the stranger said, “There he is! Grab him quickly; I’m going.” The money changer ran into the wineshop, caught hold of the old man, and began to beat him. “You dirty crook! You changed ten taels of silver-coated lead for nine thousand good copper cash.”

Everyone gathered around. Unruffled, the old man said, “I exchanged ten taels of silver that my son sent me. There was no lead hidden inside. Since you claim that I used fake silver, show it to me.”

The money changer held up the split ingot. The old man smiled. “This isn’t mine,” he said. “I had only ten taels, so I got nine thousand coppers in exchange. This fake silver seems to weigh more than ten taels; it’s not the silver I had to begin with. The money changer has come to swindle
me!
”

The people in the wineshop fetched scales to weigh the silver,
which indeed came to 11.3 taels. Turning angry, the crowd ganged up on the money changer and beat him. Thus for a moment’s greed he fell into the old man’s trap. He went home bruised and burning with resentment.

—
Yüan Mei

A tradesman so poor that he barely scraped a living picked up a chicken’s egg one day and excitedly told his wife, “Here is the family’s fortune!”

“Where?” asked the wife.

“Right here,” said the man, showing her the egg, “but it will be ten years before we become rich. I’ll take this egg and have the neighbor’s setting hen hatch it. Out of that brood I’ll bring a female chick home to lay eggs. In one month we can have fifteen chickens. In two years as the chickens give birth to chickens, we can have three hundred. They should fetch ten pieces of silver in the market, and with the money I’ll get five calves. In three years when the calves reproduce, I’ll have twenty-five. When the calves’ offspring give birth in another three years, I’ll have one hundred and fifty. This should bring in three hundred pieces of silver. If I use the money to make loans, in three years more I’ll have five hundred pieces of silver. Two-thirds of this to buy a house, one-third to buy servants and another wife—and you and I can enjoy our remaining years to the end. Won’t that be wonderful?”

All the wife heard was that her husband was thinking of buying another wife. Angrily she flung the egg away, smashing it and crying, “Let’s not harbor the seed of disaster!” Enraged, the husband beat her soundly and took her before the magistrate. “This wretched woman,” he said “has ruined the family’s fortune at a single stroke. She should be executed.” The magistrate asked the
location of the fortune and the circumstances of the loss. The husband began with the egg and described all that had happened.

The magistrate said, “An evil woman has destroyed a great family fortune in one blow. She deserves to be executed.” And he ordered the woman boiled alive.

But the woman protested loudly: “Everything my husband has told you concerns things yet to come. Why should I suffer a boiling for that?”

“The concubine that your husband spoke of buying was also something yet to come,” said the magistrate. “Why should you have become so jealous?”

“True enough,” said the woman, “but one cannot move too soon in taking precautions against disaster.” The magistrate smiled and released her.

Alas! This man schemed from greed, and his wife smashed the egg from jealousy. Both were minds under delusion. The wise man, free of desire, recognizes that even what exists is delusion; how much more so is that which has yet to come!

—
Chiang Ying-k’e

A poor man of Ch’u read in the book of science and learning known as the
Huai Nan Tzu:
“The mantis preys upon the cicada from behind a leaf that renders him invisible.” So he looked in a tree for such a leaf and saw a mantis holding one and waiting for a cicada. The man snatched at the leaf, but it fell to the foot of the tree, where so many other leaves had fallen that he could not find the one he wanted. He swept up several bushels of leaves and returned home with them.

One by one he tried the leaves, asking his wife each time, “Can you see me?” And each time she answered, “Yes.” As the day wore on she grew so tired of it that when he held up yet another leaf, she answered falsely, “I can’t see you.”

The man was struck dumb with delight. He entered the marketplace with the leaf, and holding it in front of him, began grabbing goods in front of the owner’s very eyes. The constables tied him up and took him to the judge. The man told the whole story, and the judge burst out laughing and released him.

—
Han-tan Shun