Lord Bao And The Stone (Chinese Folktale)

                                     

Hundreds of years ago a man lived in south China . He was a government official. He was so honest and fair , people loved him and they called him "Lord Bao".
One day during his routine visit to a town Lord Bao found a little boy who was crying badly. 

''Why are you crying my child'' ?  Kind hearted Lord Bao asked the young boy.

''Sir, I use to sell oil to earn my livings.  I have lost all my money." 
 ''How ?", asked Lord Bao.
"In the afternoon I felt tired , I put my  the money next to me and put my head on this stone and fell asleep'' the boy said pointing towards a stone.  
''When I got up I found out that my money wasn't here.'',he added. 
                                                
''Oh! So the stone has stolen your money, it is the thief.'' ,said Lord Bao. He lifted the stone with his hands and screamed,''Where is the money of this little boy , give it back! '   People who heard him shouting laughed and whispered in each others ears, '' How can a stone steal the money? Lord Bao has gone crazy."                     

 ''How dare you people call me crazy? Now each one of you will pay fine of one cent.'' Lord Bao ordered one of his men to collect the coins in a bag. 

While the people were putting their coins in the bag , Lord Bao was checking every coin by himself. 
"He is the thief , catch him!", suddenly Lord Bao pointed his finger towards a man and shouted. 

"But how can be you so sure that he is the thief ?", Someone  questioned Lord Bao.
''See! the coin has oil on it and the boy is an oil seller, he must be having  oil on his hands therefore there is oil on the coins too. This is little boy's coin.'' , said Lord Bao.
All the people gathered around the man..... he got scared and took out all the boy's money which he had stolen. 
Bao returned all the collected coins. The little boy got his money back and thanked Lord Bao. People praised Bao for his intelligence.

                                                                                                       Chinese Folktale
                                                                     Retold by - Aunt Mary


8 comments:

  1. long time no see, Aunt Mary.
    I love short stories you've posted as always. :)

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    1. So nice to see you after a long time , hope you are doing great . Thank you very much for reading and commenting happy child :)

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  2. I'm with Lainy, So Many Books, in that this makes a nice change. Great story as always.

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    1. Thank's a lot dear , you always encourage me, glad that you liked the story.

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  3. Interesting and nice story. :)

    Btw, how're you doing? Haven't seen you around for a long time. I hope everything is ok there.

    Regards, Balqis

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  4. Thank you so much My awesome friend , I am fine . Love you :)

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