Literary Arts Magazine Spring 2010 | Page 46

Blocking Ears to Steal a Bell By Liu Ping Once upon a time in China, there were two countries. One was named “Zhao.” The other was named “Qin.” These two countries were fighting for many years. Zhao had a big bell which was hung on the tallest house‟s roof. If an enemy came, guards would ring a bell to tell everybody to get ready to fight. Qin‟s army was very worried about this bell because several times when they wanted to unexpectedly attack Zhao, the bell rang, so the attack was defeated. One day, Qin‟s leader wanted his people to talk about how to solve this problem. After a silence, one man stood up and said that they could steal the bell. Others agreed. And the man who had this suggestion became the volunteer to steal the bell. On a night without moon, the man climbed up the house. When he prepared to steal the bell, he thought of an important thing that he had never considered. That is: the bell must ring when he touched it. What could he do? He thought and thought. So he decided to block his ears in order to prevent hearing the bell ring. He thought if he didn‟t hear anything, other must not hear either. At last, he did it like that. But the guards did hear the bell. And then, he was arrested by Zhao‟s guards. This story tells us: Don‟t consider something is the same as you think. Today in China, “Blocking one‟s ears to steal a bell” is used to describe an action or an idea that means fooling oneself by believing no one knows what you are doing or what you think. Teacher: Sally McElroy Level 6 Afternoon Fall 2009 45