In the old days there lived a poor man nicknamed Wang Wu-tzu - Wang the Fifth. And he had a donkey, and he carried brushwood and coal on it. Others are fed by hands, but the poor are fed by a donkey's back. The poor man took care of his donkey, just like a precious treasure, watered, fed, fine grass and then chopped it with a cleaver. He groomed his donkey so much that its skin became smooth and its bristles were shiny. Whoever sees it will praise it:
- Indeed, a four-legged treasure!
Of course, that ass was stubborn, and that’s why he was an ass! From morning to night he beats with his hooves and does not give himself rest. You can load at most one hundred and twenty jin on another donkey, but this one can carry two hundred and forty. The other donkey runs away at one end, but this one gets there at two.
The poor man loaded the donkey with charcoal and took it to the town to sell. He tied the donkey at the gate and carried the sack of coal to sell. He turned back - no donkey. Instead, another, frozen, donkey is tied to the tree. The poor man was alarmed, he began to rush about, now he would run to the east, then he would rush to the west, wherever he looked! There was no trace of the donkey. Wang Fifth got annoyed, he got angry, dragged the mangy donkey to Judge Bao to file a complaint, but he didn’t know who to name as the defendant. I thought and thought, and filed a complaint against the slandering donkey.
Judge Bao came out into the hall and began to sort out the cases. He got to Van Fifth’s complaint, ordered the guards to bring the defendant and let him scold him:
- Tai! Where did you come from? How dare you take someone else’s name and impersonate someone else!
And the donkey lowered his head, silent, even if he uttered a word!
Judge Bao became even more furious than before, slamming his mallet on the table and shouting:
- Wang Chao, Ma Han! Immediately put a muzzle on the donkey! Don't feed him, don't give him water! Lock him up firmly under arrest for three days. Then we’ll interrogate him again!
The guards almost laughed, both those who stood on the dais near the judge and those who were below in the hall, but they did not dare. They had to follow the judge's order. They locked the venerable defendant, a frozen donkey, in an empty pen. Meanwhile, this news spread to all four directions, people were amazed, they had never heard of such a thing. And on the third day, when the trial was scheduled again, not hundreds but thousands of people filled the presence. Everyone wants to take a look.
They beat the drum three times, Judge Bao went up into the hall and sat down in the judge's seat. The guards immediately brought the donkey: its belly had collapsed, its head was bowed, it was pitiful to look at. The judge hit the table with a mallet and shouted:
- Hey, guards! Give this brat forty sticks, and hit him harder!
“I obey,” the guards answered at once, took their batogs and started bludgeoning the donkey. Ten, twenty, thirty - all forty sticks were given to him.
Finally, Judge Bao ordered:
“Now let him go, let him go wherever he wants.”
And the frozen donkey sat locked up for three days, did not eat for three days, did not drink for three days, received forty sticks, and suffered through fear. How he will fly out of the hall, how he will rush! They only saw him. Here Judge Bao ordered one guard and Wang the Fifth to follow the trail and see: whose house he runs into - that is its owner, the same thief who stole Van the Fifth’s donkey and left his iceman behind.
Van Fifth and the guard followed the trail, several more onlookers followed them, as many as fifteen passed, they looked - an ice-eyed donkey ran into the owner of one farm. The people followed the donkey. They found, of course, the donkey that had been taken away from Van the Fifth, and the thief himself was captured.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru