The two friends had the perfect plan to get rid of the other man who was lying down on their spot in the forest.
Pao-Shu shook the man up.
The sleeping man woke up from his slumber and looked annoyed at being woken up. “Why did you wake me up?”
“If you get up and walk on this path, you will come across a lump of gold. All of that belongs to you if you take it now.” Pao-Shu told the man immediately.
At first the other man did not believe these words. But then looking at the earnest faces of both the friends he realized that there was no harm in checking on the words of the two men. The man eagerly got up and went in search of the promised lump of gold.
Then Pao-Shu and Ki-Wu sat in the spot that the other man had been sleeping on. The two friends spoke for about an hour and they enjoyed themselves there.
“What trick are you trying to play on me?” An annoyed voice came from behind.
The two men turned to find the other man whom they had sent on the quest to find the lump of gold behind them.
“We are not trying to play any trick.” One of the friends said, “We found a lump of gold and wanted you to have it.”
“I did not find any lump of gold there.” The man grumbled. “I found a huge monstrous snake which I had to cut with my blade. Now I may have bad luck for killing something in the woods.” The man looked cross. “Is this your way of chasing me away on a hot day?”
The two friends shook their heads and one of them gave the other man a copper coin. “Keep this for all the troubles that you have gone through.”
After that the two friends decided to get back home and they decided to find the path and find the lump of gold or the monstrous snake whichever it was.
They found the exact spot and they had found the lump of gold. This time there was not a lump of gold or a dead snake either. But there were two beautiful golden nuggets larger than the one that they had seen first.
The two friends realized that the fairies wanted to reward the two of them and that was the reason there were two golden nuggets and each took one and went back home happily.
Adapted from Chinese Folktales
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