【Description】
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, a man named Li-desi secretly replaced a large amount of his old friend’s silver with white wine. He did it so seamlessly that no one noticed. Even a police officer could not find any evidence. What was the outcome of this case?
People often say: “Virtue has its rewards and evil has its punishment. Payback is just a matter of time.” Let’s take a look at the effect of causality in this case.
【You will learn】
- The story surrounding “evil has its punishment”
- Understand the consequences of greed for ill-gotten gains
【Featured aphorism】
- Unjustly earned wealth cannot be taken; wealth that belongs to your friends should not be taken; illegitimate wealth should never be desired.
- Keeping ill-gotten gains will cause you to pay back the capital plus interest.
【Content】
It happened during the later stage of the Ming dynasty, about 300 years ago. Around 10 miles from the capital city Beijing, there was a village called Wajiadian. It means “tile store” in Chinese.
In the village lived a rich landlord, Qian. A farmer, Li, lived 2 miles from Qian’s mansion. That was Li Desi. He was skilled at household repairs. Whenever his mansion needed repairing, he would pay Li to do it. Since Qian was rich, he paid quite well. Qian was an easygoing guy who treated Li like his little brother. On the other hand, Li called Qian “big brother”. They were close friends.
So, one day, Qian was going to the South with his family. It could take months for him to return. Before his departure, he paid a visit to Li’s place. “Little brother, we have known each other for a long time. We are so close. I really trust you. I have a favor to ask of you.” “No problem. You have helped me a lot. Speak up. I will try my best to do it for you.”
“It is about my barrels of wine in my mansion. I am afraid that my servants will drink it all while I am gone. Can I leave the barrels here and you look after them for me?” Li thought that was such a small thing. “Trust me, I will be honored to keep them safe here.” Qian then hired people to move more than 30 barrels from his mansion to Li’s place. Li seldom went to that house, so he had it locked down.
Qian still hadn’t returned 2 or 3 months later. There was no news of him. Li suddenly remembered the wine barrels. He was curious about the taste of the wine. He was a guy after all; guys can’t resist expensive wine. He checked the barrels by moving, shaking and patting them, and he felt that something wasn’t right.
In the past, Chinese wine barrels were sealed with wooden stoppers. Stoppers were covered with a piece of cloth and then tied. No matter how tight the seal, there was a faint scent of wine. Li shook one of the barrels, but he couldn’t feel any liquid moving. There was no scent of wine. The mouths of the barrels were wrapped using paper and then covered with cloth and tied. The more he shook the barrels, the more curious he became. He wanted to open a barrel; all were sealed with sealing tape.
He was curious. At last, he opened one of the barrels. When he opened the first barrel, he was shocked. There was no scent or movement of liquid, because it was filled with gold and silver ingots. He opened up the rest of the barrels and found the same. “That is a lot of money!” His greed arose and he spent 3 days coming up with an evil plan to pocket all of the money. He gathered all the ingots and found a place to bury them. He then cleaned up the barrels, filled them with wine, and sealed them up.
A few months later, Qian returned. He asked Li about his wine barrels. Li replied that he would have someone deliver them to Qian’s mansion. Qian was, of course, shocked when he smelled wine from one of the barrels. He examined the rest of the barrels and found no ingots in them, only wine. He almost had a heart attack. “Little brother, have you seen my, uh, barrels?” He couldn’t bring up the ingots, as Li wasn’t supposed to know about them. “I mean, I had something in the barrels and it is all gone.” “Yup, the wine, it is still in the barrels.”
Qian couldn’t do anything about it. He would surely lose if he took the matter to court. He did tell Li the barrels were filled with wine, and the returned barrels had wine in them. Li would surely get away with it. Qian could only swallow his grief; his health was ruined. He died with great regret 6 months later; his family was very saddened. Li was no doubt happy about it. With Qian gone, no one else would ask him about the ingots. He could spend the 3,000 ingots at will. He was the happiest man in the world.
He quit his job as a repairman and married a few women. Well, he could, because he had the money. He also built a huge mansion and became the richest man in the village. One of his wives was expecting a baby. She was set to deliver within a few days. Li was happy; he was getting one more child. In the past, having many wives and children symbolized wealth. The day before the birth, he had a dream. He was having tea alone in his room. Suddenly, the door opened and Qian entered. “Dear brother, I have returned for what is mine.”
Qian’s words woke him up; cold sweat ran down his spine. His maid then came with good news; his wife had delivered a baby. It was supposed to be good news, but not this time. That bad dream had got into Li’s mind. He didn’t feel happy. He kept thinking that the child was the reincarnation of Qian, coming back to take his life or the ingots.
However, it wasn’t like what he thought. The child grew up obedient to him and was academically brilliant. The child would not defy his father. He was brilliant in academics. His teachers, schoolmates and neighbors all adored him. When the kid was 18 years old, his teacher suggested that he take the national examination in Beijing. He did well and got a good grade.
He then became a government officer. He was a rank-7 officer. In the 9-rank system, rank-7 is quite low in the hierarchy. However, when given a county to look after, a rank-7 officer was the boss. In short, he was the “emperor” in the county he was assigned to. When he learned of his son’s success in the examination and his career as a rank-7 officer, Li wanted to throw a big party. Everyone in the village came to congratulate the kid.
As the kid settled into his job, someone approached Li. In Ancient China, there were people pulling strings behind the scenes to help low-ranking officers get promoted in exchange for money. Rising through the ranks is a part of human nature, after all. Someone claimed the kid’s rank was too low. He convinced Li to bribe a higher-ranking officer in exchange for the kid to move up one or 2 ranks.
A rank-5 officer was probably like today’s vice governor. That would have brought more fame to Li’s family. Li became interested. Li asked this person how. The person said Li needed to use some money. Li thought that being a higher-ranking officer would generate more money by corrupt means, so he agreed to it. Li spent quite a lot of money to bribe a high-ranking officer, about 3,000 ingots. To those who were the cream of the hierarchy, 3,000 ingots was gone quickly. But it went pretty smoothly. After the bribery, his son was quickly promoted to a rank-4 officer. Everything went smoothly and another celebration was expected.
The kid was 19 when he became a rank-4 officer. In the past, people got married young. At his age, he was considered a bit late getting married. Families with daughters who were still single hired matchmakers for marriage proposals for their daughters. The kid, being academically brilliant and a rank-4 officer, was every lady’s dream guy. Li’s family was visited by many matchmakers.
One day, the kid paid a visit to an officer’s mansion and fell madly in love with the officer’s daughter. How madly in love was he? He lost sleep because the girl kept appearing in his mind. The kid told his dad of his intention to marry the girl. Li thought his son’s rank was quite high; there was no reason the proposal would be rejected. He spent big money again on wedding gifts and a matchmaker. The matchmaker thought he needed more money to succeed. At that time, Li’s coffer was drying up.
But still, the girl’s family agreed to the marriage proposal. The wedding date was set on the fifth day of the following month. Li was again the happiest man on Earth. He drank some wine to celebrate the marriage and fell asleep.
He had a dream. It was almost the same as the one he had had 19 years ago, but a bit different. Qian appeared in his dream again and gave him an eerie smile. “Thanks for paying back what is mine, little brother, and thanks for the interest too.” Qian patted the huge sack of money on his shoulder and disappeared. That caused Li to wake up terrified. Qian died with such anger because his ingots had been stolen. In Li’s dream Qian said, “Thanks for paying back…”
Li woke up in a cold sweat, full of fear. A maid came into his chamber with bad news. The kid had suddenly fallen sick. The rank-4 kid, remember? Li rushed to check on his son. His capable and filial son had died at a very young age, right after the marriage proposal was agreed with the other family. Everything happened so quickly. The kid didn’t leave any last word. Li’s knees suddenly grew weak and he fell to the ground. His son, whom everyone expected to achieve big, died at a young age not having enjoyed much of his success. And he died before becoming someone’s husband too. It was all a shattered dream. Li lost his son and all his wealth.
Look at the money he spent on his son’s education, bribing an officer, and the marriage proposal. He had spent around 30,000 ingots on his son; that is more than the ingots he stole from Qian. This is a story from the later stage of the Ming dynasty.
Here is a reminder: Don’t take money you never earn, or anything that is not yours. Never stain your hands with dirty money. Otherwise, you are going to pay back a lot more than you took. The ending will be ugly, that is for sure. I hope you learn a lesson from this story.