Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/107

 The Two Robbers.

In the State of Ch'i there lived a very rich man named Kuŏ; in the State of Sung there lived a very poor man named Hsiang. One day Mr. Hsiang went from Sung to Ch'i to ask Mr. Kuŏ what secret he possessed for acquiring wealth; and Mr. Kuŏ replied, "The fact is, that I am an extremely clever robber. When I had been robbing for a year, I had enough to eat; in two years I was in easy circumstances; in three I enjoyed affluence; and from that time to this I have dispensed charity to all the people in my district."

Mr. Hsiang was delighted. He understood very well what robbery was, but he did not understand the principle of the robbery referred to. So he immediately took to climbing over walls and breaking into houses, and nothing that his hand could reach or his eye could see escaped his clutches; but alas! in a very short time the stolen goods led to the detection of his crimes, so that he lost even the property he originally possessed. Then Hsiang, beginning to think that he had been grossly misled by Mr. Kuŏ, went to him and reproached him bitterly. "In what way did you act the robber?" asked Mr. Kuŏ. So Hsiang described all that he had been doing. "What!" exclaimed Kuŏ, "have you really missed the true principle of robbery to such an extent as this? Let me now explain to you what that principle is. You know that Heaven has its seasons and Earth its produce; well, what I steal are these two things. I employ the moistening and fertilising influences of the clouds and rain, the productive and nurturing properties of the mountain and the marsh, to make my corn grow and to ripen my harvests, to build my houses and construct my walls. On dry land I plunder birds and beasts; in the water I plunder fishes and turtles. All this is robbery; for, seeing that corn and harvests, soil and trees, birds and beasts, fish and turtles, are all produced by Heaven, how can they belong to me? Yet in thus robbing Heaven I incur no retribution. But gold, jewels, precious stones, food, silken fabrics, wealth, and property are accumulated by men; Heaven does not bestow them. If, then, you