Stories from Ancient China: The Stolen Chicken

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In ancient times, there was once a scholar in the Hunan/Hubei region. It happened that the seventh court of the nether world was short handed so the Jade Emperor assigned the scholar to take a job there temporarily. So he went to the nether world every few days. His main job was to review record books without having to judge any case. When he browsed the record books, he saw that penalties and rewards were different according to each person's karma. Every time he saw people suffering from cruel tortures, he would send people to save them. But he found that he couldn't possibly save them even though he tried very hard.

One day while he was browsing a record book, he saw an offence recorded by his wife's name. It said that she had stolen a chicken, weighing one jin, 12 liang. He folded the page so he could come back to check it out later.

When he returned to this world, he asked his wife whether she had once stolen a chicken from her neighbour. His wife denied it in the beginning. When he told his wife what he had seen in the nether world, she admitted it. She explained that because the chicken ate the grain she had spread outside to dry she accidentally killed it. She was afraid of being rebuked by her neighbour so she hid the chicken to conceal what she had done.

The couple then dug up the dead chicken and weighed it. It was exactly one jin, 12 liang. They both were very surprised. They brought the money to their neighbour to pay for the chicken and admitted the mistake.

Several days later, the scholar returned to the nether world. When he opened the record book to the page he had seen before, he found his wife's offence had disappeared.

The gods do not miss a thing. Even a minor fault will go on record. It goes without saying that punishment for the high crime committed against Falun Gong practitioners will be much more severe. Those who committed the crime will be completely annihilated both bodily and spiritually.

From Information Recorded Vernacular written in the Ming dynasty

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