A countryman was one day selling his pears in the market. They were unusually sweet and fine flavoured, and the price he asked was high. A Taoist[46] priest in rags and tatters stopped at the barrow and begged one of them. The countryman told him to go away, but as he did not do so he began to curse and swear at him. The priest said, “You have several hundred pears on your barrow; I ask for a single one, the loss of which, Sir, you would not feel. Why then get angry?” The lookers-on told the countryman to give him an inferior one and let him go, but this he obstinately refused to do.Thereupon the beadle of the place, finding the commotion too great,purchased a pear and handed it to the priest. The latter received it with a bow and turning to the crowd said, “We who have left our homes and given up all that is dear to us[47] are at a loss to understand selfish niggardly conduct in others. Now I have some exquisite pears which I shall do myself the honour to put before you.” Here somebody asked, “Since you have pears yourself, why don’t you eat those?” “Because,” replied the priest, “I wanted one of these pips to grow them from.” So saying, he munched up the pear;and when he had finished took a pip in his hand, unstrapped a pick from his back, and proceeded to make a hole in the ground, several inches deep,wherein he deposited the pip, filling in the earth as before. He then asked the bystanders for a little hot water to water it with, and one among them who loved a joke fetched him some boiling water from a neighbouring shop. The priest poured this over the place where he had made the hole, and every eye was fixed upon him when sprouts were seen shooting up, and gradually growing larger and larger. By-and-by, there was a tree with branches sparsely covered with leaves; then flowers, and last of all fine, large, sweet-smelling pears hanging in great profusion. These the priest picked and handed round to the assembled crowd until all were gone, when he took his pick and hacked away for a long time at the tree, finally cutting it down. This he shouldered, leaves and all, and sauntered quietly away. Now, from the very beginning, our friend the countryman had been amongst the crowd, straining his neck to see what was going on, and forgetting all about his business. At the departure of the priest he turned round and discovered that every one of his pears was gone. He then knew that those the old fellow had been giving away so freely were really his own pears. Looking more closely at the barrow he also found that one of the handles was missing, evidently having been newly cut off. Boiling with rage, he set out in pursuit of the priest, and just as he turned the corner he saw the lost barrow-handle lying under the wall,being in fact the very pear-tree that the priest had cut down. But there were no traces of the priest—much to the amusement of the crowd in the market-place.
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio（聊斋志异）
《Liao Zhai Zhi Yi》commonly known as "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" or colloquially as "Tales of Ghosts and Foxes", is a collection of classical Chinese short stories written in literary Chinese by the Qing dynasty author Pu Songling. The earliest manuscript copies of these stories were circulated during the Kangxi period of the Qing dynasty.
Born into a scholarly family, Pu Songling initially sought to enter officialdom through the imperial examination system. Unfortunately, after many attempts, he did not pass and was relegated to earning a living by teaching. From a young age, he had a strong interest in folk tales about ghosts and spirits. It is said that in order to collect material for his writings, Pu Songling opened a teahouse near his home, where patrons could pay for their tea by telling him a story. Utilizing this method, he gathered a vast array of extraordinary tales which, after refining and editing, he included in his work "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio".
