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by wenhousecrafts.com

A Fake Shoe Seller
- Stories Told by a Young Chinese Monk (6)

10 December 2007

In the Watery Town there is an old man surnamed Chen. Old Chen's son has a job in city and often sends money back to him, so the old man retires comfortably to the envy of many old folks in the town.

As Old Chen has plenty of leisure time to spend, he frequently visits our monastery to tell his life stories - in the town wherever he begins to tell tales, people would make excuses and slip away, but when we have time we would listen. Some of his stories are repeated old yarns, some quite boring, and some don't even make much sense, but if by simply listening we can bring smiles to a lonely old man's face, why not to do it? After all, whether a story is interesting or make sense is rather a subjective matter.

Anyway, among Old Chen’s numerous tales, one does stick in my mind for quite a long time:

There are many stalls in streets of the Watery Town, one such a stall is owned by Mr Li, selling fake brand shoes. The funny thing is whenever he finds someone else selling the same brand shoes, he would dash forward, accusing the seller of selling fake brands. For that he has made quite a few enemies in the town, but he keeps doing so. One day Old Chen asked Mr Li why he had to be so foolishly brutal, Li replied confidentially, “Well, you see, if I fight against the fake products so publicly, no one will suspect me."

After heard that story, later that day I asked No Fool if he knew Mr Li.

“Oh, you mean Li the fake shoe seller? Sure,” responded the novice.

(You can visit Monk No Anger's personal blog to read his original posts in Chinese at "http://787129669.qzone.qq.com")

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