Just at that moment an old man came by and the scholar cried for help, explaining to the old man: “I saved that wolf’s life, but now he wants to eat me. Tell him that that is not right and just.”

The wolf countered by explaining that the scholar had bound his feet and that he had nearly suffocated in the bag of books.

“I cannot tell exactly which is right until I understand the situation. Show me what happened and let me see if you suffered as you say you did,” said the old man.

The wolf gladly complied and crawled back in the bag, which was then closed.

The old man asked the scholar: “Do you have a dagger?” The scholar produced one and the old man gestured that he was to stab the wolf.

“But wouldn’t that hurt him?” queried the scholar. The old man laughed. “This is a most ungrateful beast, and yet you will not kill it. You are truly a man of compassion, but you are also very foolish.” Thereupon the old man killed the wolf.

The Yu-yen mode of writing seen in these fables is still used today to articulate philosophical, and especially political, viewpoints. The fable is capable of covering up the actual target and yet still make that specific target very clearly the focal point. Chinese fables were and are used in precisely the same way as fables in other cultures were. The “Chicken-Thief” fable recorded in the works of the philosopher Mencius is told in a specific context.

A chicken thief stole chickens from nearby residents in a particular community every day. He was told that stealing chickens is wrong, and each time he was told,  he promised that he would try to stop stealing, but would have to taper off, stealing only one chicken a month and slow down until next year, when he would stop altogether.

But, if he knew it was wrong, then it is wrong now; why wait for another full year?

The immediate application of this fable is to be found in its context, when it was told to a certain minister of Sung who refused to stop his system of outrageous taxation. A similar complaint from another source evoked a fable that has the same broad theme, but the action is now from ignorance rather than evil intent. The same minister and the same system of taxation is the intended target here: