A Cheng woodcutter, collecting fuel in a remote place, met a frightened deer, hit it and killed it. Fearing that someone would notice the deer, the woodcutter hastened to hide it in the ditch and cover it with brushwood. But out of joy, he suddenly forgot where he hid the loot, and decided that it all happened in a dream.
On the way, the woodcutter sang about what happened to him. A passerby overheard the song and thanks to this he found the deer. Arriving home, he said to his wife:
— The woodcutter caught a deer in a dream, but did not know where it was. Now I have found it. The woodcutter truly had a prophetic dream.
The wife objected:
“Didn’t you dream that a woodcutter killed a deer?” Where did the woodcutter come from? Truly, you got a deer, which means your dream was prophetic.
The husband replied:
- Why figure out who had the dream: him or me? I got a deer!
The woodcutter returned home, but could not come to terms with the loss of the deer. That same night, in a prophetic dream, he saw the place where he hid the loot and the man who found it. The next morning, the woodcutter found the man in his dream, and then went to court to argue over the deer. He was sent to the Mentor of Men.
The mentor of husbands said:
“If you really got the deer first, then you are wrong to call it a dream.” If you actually caught a deer in a dream, then it is in vain to call it real. If the passerby actually took your deer, then he argues with you over the deer. If his wife correctly says that he learned about someone else's deer in a dream, then no one got the deer. However, here is the proof - the deer. I ask you to divide it into two parts, and let King Zheng hear about it.
King Zheng said:
- Alas! Didn’t the judge himself see in a dream that he divided someone else’s deer?
The king asked his assistant for advice. The assistant said:
“Your servant can’t figure out whether it was a dream or not.” Only the Yellow Ancestor and Confucius could distinguish a dream from reality. Who will distinguish them if now there is neither the Yellow Ancestor nor Confucius? This means that you can trust the decision of the Mentor of Husbands.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru