During the Spring?and Autumn period, Nobleman ZhiBo of the Jin state eliminated the Fan clan [in battle]. There was a person who sought to take advantage of the defeated [and thus absent] Fan clan to steal some things from their house, and he saw that in their yard dangled a large bell. The bell was molded from the finest bronze, its shape and design were very fine indeed. The thief was extremely happy, thinking to take this refined bell and carry it back to his own house. But the bell was both big and heavy, and howsoever he tried, he couldn’t move it. He thought and thought, and came up with just one solution, which was to break the bell to bits, then take the pieces separately back to his house.

　　
The thief found a sledgehammer, and swung at the bell with all his might. A loud “gong” sound rang out, startling the thief. The thief panicked, thinking this [enterprise] was spoiled, thinking “that kind of noise is tantamount to telling people that I’m here stealing the bell, isn’t it?” He was worried, and he flung is body at the bell, stretching his arms around it to try to still the sound, but really how could he stop it? The sound went on and on, ringing far and wide.
The longer he heard it, the more afraid he became, and withdrew his hands to press them against his ears with all his strength. “Yi, the sound has lessened, I can’t hear it anymore!” The thief became happy again, “How wonderful! If I cover my ears well, the sound can’t be heard!” covered his ears well, he couldn’t hear the sound at all! He immediately found two pieces of cloth and stopped up his ears, thinking that this way, no one else could hear the bell’s sound either. So he began smashing the bell, hitting it again and again, the ringing of the bell being heard even in far away places. People heard the bells sounds and came in great numbers, catching the thief.

春秋時(shí)侯，晉國(guó)貴族智伯滅掉了范氏。有人趁機(jī)跑到范氏家里想偷點(diǎn)東西，看見院子里吊著一口大鐘。鐘是用上等青銅鑄成的，造型和圖案都很精美。小偷心里高興極了，想把這口精美的大鐘背回自已家去?？墒晴娪执笥种兀趺匆才膊粍?dòng)。他想來想去，只有一個(gè)辦法，那就是把鐘敲碎，然后再分別搬回家。
　　
小偷找來一把大大錘，拼命朝鐘砸去，咣的一聲巨響，把他嚇了一大跳。小偷著慌，心想這下糟了，這種聲不就等于是告訴人們我正在這里偷鐘嗎？他心里一急，身子一下子撲到了鐘上，張開雙臂想捂住鐘聲，可鐘聲又怎么捂得住呢！鐘聲依然悠悠地傳向遠(yuǎn)方。
他越聽越害怕，不同自由地抽回雙手，使勁捂住自已的耳朵?！斑祝娐曌冃×?，聽不見了！”小偷高興起來，“妙極了！把耳朵捂住不住就聽不進(jìn)鐘聲了嗎！”他立刻找來兩個(gè)布團(tuán)，把耳朵塞住，心想，這下誰也聽不見鐘聲了。于是就放手砸起鐘來，一下一下，鐘聲響亮地傳到很遠(yuǎn)的地方。人們聽到鐘聲蜂擁而至把小偷捉住了。