Story 165: Big thief and little thief

Story 165: Big thief and little thief

Big thief and little thief

Author: Anonymous

Once upon a time, there was an old man who had four sons. One day, he called his sons to him, gave each of them some gold, and asked them to go out and learn a craft, and then come back home after six years to compete.

The sons followed their father’s instructions and set out on an auspicious day. The four of them walked together for two full days. On the third day, they met several sick people on the road. The eldest asked, “Where are you going?” The sick people said, “There is a famous doctor in the upper district. Let’s go to him for treatment.” The eldest said to his three younger brothers, “I want to learn how to treat illnesses. Let’s say goodbye here and see each other in six years! Now each of you build a pile of stones. Whoever goes back first will tear down his own pile of stones.”

The eldest brother left, and the three brothers continued to walk together. When they reached a valley, they met a group of people carrying coal. The second brother asked, “Why are you carrying coal?” One of them said, “There is a blacksmith in the lower district, Gala Mingzhu Tuoyang (meaning a blacksmith whose hammer is like a magician), we help him carry coal.” The second brother said to his two younger brothers, “I want to learn blacksmithing, let’s split up!”

The third and fourth brothers continued to walk forward. As they walked, they saw a strong man carrying a yellow cow on his back and striding forward. The youngest brother said, “Third brother, I want to learn strength from this strong man. Let’s part ways!”

Finally, the third brother was the only one left. He came to the foot of a mountain and saw a man sitting on the ground with many women’s ornaments in front of him. The man was counting “one, two, three”. The third brother walked up to him, and the man suddenly jumped up and drew out his sword with his eyes bigger than mountain peaches. The third brother hurriedly said: “Please spare my life! I want to become your disciple. How did you get these things?” The man said: “I stole them.” The third brother said: “I will learn to steal from you.”

Six years passed in a flash, and the four brothers all learned a craft and returned home. Their old father was very happy and asked them what they had learned. The eldest told his father that he had learned how to cure diseases; the second told his father that he had learned how to forge iron, saying that he held the chisel in his left hand and the hammer in his right hand, and in less than a cup of tea, he had hammered out a beautiful iron basin; the fourth told his father that he had learned how to do strength, he ran to the yard and easily picked up a bull, his brothers were very surprised and asked him how he learned this skill, the fourth said: “The master gave me a newborn calf and asked me to hold it every day.

Six years later, the calf grew up, and I can still hold it.” The father found that the third son always lowered his head and looked at people with squinting eyes, so he asked: “What have you learned?” The third son said: “I learned how to steal.” The father was stunned for a long time and said: “Our neighbor bought fish today, you go and steal it back.” Then the old man quickly ran to the neighbor’s house and said angrily: “My third son has learned how to steal, and he will come to steal your fish tonight. Beat him up, and he will never dare to steal again in the future.”

At night, the neighbor old man closed the three doors of the house, the outer door, the middle door and the inner door, holding a stick and waiting for the thief. The third brother took a long hook, climbed up the chimney on the roof of the neighbor’s building, and imitated the cat’s meow. The neighbor old man said: “Oh no, the cat wants to eat the fish.” The old woman said: “I’ll put the fish in the cupboard.” While the two were talking, the thief reached down the hook from the chimney and hooked the fish. The old woman came in and saw the fish hanging in the air. She shouted: “Oh no, the fish flew away!”

The third son gave the stolen fish to his father. His father was very surprised and ran to ask the neighbor why he didn’t beat the thief. The old neighbor said that there was no thief at all, and the fish flew away by itself. The father took out the fish and said, “Look, the fish didn’t fly away, it was my son who stole it.” The old neighbor was furious and said, “If he comes to steal my underpants tonight, I will beat him half to death.”

When his father came home, he asked the third son to steal the neighbor’s old man’s underpants again tonight. The third son said, “What’s the point of stealing underpants? It’s better to steal the gold and silver treasures of the rich.” But he didn’t dare to disobey his father’s order. At night, he ran to the cowshed, took some thin cow dung, and then dressed up as the neighbor’s old woman. He sneaked into the neighbor’s kitchen quietly and slept soundly in a corner.

The neighbor’s old man lay in bed and didn’t close his eyes all night. When the cock crowed at dawn, there was still no movement. The old man thought that the thief would not come, so he went to sleep at ease. At this time, the third son took the thin cow dung and quietly rubbed it on the old man’s butt. When the old man woke up, he felt a chill on his butt and thought he had diarrhea. He took off his underpants, kicked off the quilt, and fell asleep again.

The third child gave the stolen underpants to his father. His father was even more surprised and ran to blame the neighbor. The old neighbor said angrily: “Let your son steal from me tonight, and see if he can do it?”

After hearing this, the third child smiled and said, “I have learned to steal things, but I have never learned to steal people. But I can give it a try.” He dug a hole at the door of the neighbor’s sheepfold and put a big bag into the hole. The bag mouth can be tightened by pulling it with a rope. The third child covered the bag with a layer of grass, hid next to the sheepfold at night, and roared like a leopard. The sheep in the pen were frightened and screamed, jumping and jumping.

The neighbor old man thought that the leopard was coming to take the sheep, so he rushed to the sheepfold with a spear in his hand, and accidentally fell into the hole. The third child pulled the rope and the bag mouth tightened. He returned home with the bag on his back and said to his father, “The neighbor stole it.” His father had no choice but to give him some money and drive him out of the house.

The third brother wandered around. One day, he was wandering in a village and met a young man. The young man asked: “What’s your name and where are you going?” The third brother said: “My name is Big Thief and I’m going to steal things.” The young man said: “I’m also called Big Thief and I’m going to steal things.” The third brother said: “We can’t both be called Big Thief and Big Thief. Let’s compete and see who has better skills.

Who will be called Big Thief and Big Thief. I can steal the eggs from his house without disturbing the owner.” The young man said: “I can also steal the patched soles on his shoes without disturbing the owner.” The two decided to compete in the evening.

It was dark. The third brother took a sharp knife, sneaked into a house, dug a hole in the egg basket hanging on the wall, and took out the eggs one by one. The basket was hung very high, so he had to stand on tiptoe. The young man took the opportunity to cut off the sole of his shoe with a sharp knife.

After returning, the third brother said proudly: “Look, I stole the eggs, it’s your turn to steal the sole of the shoe.” The young man said: “I stole the sole of the shoe a long time ago, look at your shoes!” The third brother was very surprised and had to say: “You are called the big thief, and I am called the little thief!” From then on, the two thieves often worked together to steal and became notorious.

One day, the big thief said to the little thief, “There are some merchants living in the cave ahead. Let’s go get some stuff.” Then one of them painted a tiger face on his buttocks, and the other painted a leopard face on his buttocks, and came to the cave entrance in broad daylight.

The merchants went out to do business, leaving only one person to make tea and guard the things. When the merchant who made tea went out to fetch water, the thief hurried into the cave, facing the stove with his bare buttocks. The merchant came back with water and started to make tea. Just as he was about to add salt, he suddenly felt that there were tigers and leopards swaying in front of him. He was so scared that he screamed, “Oh my God!” and poured the boiling hot tea on the tigers and leopards.

The big thief and the little thief were burned and screamed, “Ouch, it hurts!” The merchant immediately realized that it was the thieves. He quickly drew his sword and chopped them into four pieces.

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