Project in English II

THE TRIAL OF THE STONE

A Chinese Folktale

            The boy Ah Niew was an orphan whose mother died when he was two years old. His grandmother brought him up by selling cakes cooked in oil. He carried the cakes in a basket lined with oily paper and peddled these in the streets.

            One day, Ah Niew was especially lucky. He has sold the three hundred cakes very fast. He was about to go home when he saw an old woman crossing the street with a basketful of fruits. In her haste, she stumbled and her fruits rolled in the streets. Ah Niew put down his basket and with the money in it and came to woman’s rescue. He gathered the fruits, rubbed off the dust from them, and returned them in the basket.

            When he turned to get his own basket, it was gone. He looked around and saw it beside a big stone. But the money was gone.

            Ah Niew cried so loud that the people came to see what was the matter. “Oh! Oh! My money is gone…” Ah Niew wailed. “What will my grandmother say? She worked so hard baking all those cakes in oil… and I sold them all. But the money is gone.”

            Paw Kong, a Mandarin who was a kindhearted judge happened to be passing by. Ah Niew ran to him for help. Paw Kong scrutinized the faces of the onlookers. He said to young man, “Did you take the boy’s money?”

            “No,” replied the young man.

            “Did you take it?” he asked the man with the big nose. “No,” he replied.

            All the people around him whom he asked denied that they had taken the money.

            Paw Kong said, “I have asked all of you and none would admit the theft. The only remaining object nearby is this stone, so it must be the thief. Servants, take the stone to the court I shall try it for taking the boy’s money.”

            The people laughed but they were curious to see the trial of the stone, so they went with Paw Kong with the court.

            “You must each pay twenty cents to enter the court,” Paw Kong told them.

            The judge instructed the servants to put a pot of water at the entrance of the court. “Each person must pay twenty cents before they enter the court,” he told the people.

            Paw Kong stood by the water, looking intently at the water as each man dropped his twenty cents. The pot was nearly full of money.

            “That is the man who took the money,” said Paw Kong. “Servant, take him! Look in his bag and he will find money.”

            The Mandarin servants seized the man, opened his bag and true enough! They found two hundred eighty cents.

            “That is my money,” shouts Ah Niew.

            “Yes, that is your money,” agreed Paw Kong.

            “How did you know that is the boy’s money?” asked the people.

            “Look!” said Paw Kong. Look at the water. Ah Niew put his money under the paper lining of the basket. I saw the paper. So his money has oil in it. There is oil on the water, which appeared only when that man put his twenty cents in the pot.”

            “Thank you, thank you, Sir,” replied the grateful Ah Niew as he skipped gaily home to his grandmother.

 

REACTION:

I liked the story because it shows that justice is really for everyone. I liked how the author used the character Ah Niew and Paw Kong in the story. I really liked the story because I felt that this scenario can happen to real life.

This story is a good story especially for youth like us. It teaches us that we should accept all the things that life offers us, just like Ah Niew, he accepted his life with only his grandma on his side, and never asked God for not having a mom and a dad. This story also tells us that everything you do that is good, even if it seems that no one appreciates you, will pay at the end. You will receive trust, love and honesty from others as well. This proves the saying, “There are no secrets that will not be known”, because even if the thief denied his sin, Paw Kong , through his very impressive way of investigating, unfolded the mystery – that the man was really the robber. I also believe that the oil played a very big role in the sense that without the oil on the money, Paw Kong will not know the truth and Ah Niew’s money will not be returned. I find Paw Kong’s strategy of accusing the stone and putting it into a hearing quite amazing and accurate. It is because the attention of the people focused on the “first-ever stone hearing inside the court” and not to the real thing – in arresting the thief.

And what I liked most was the big concern that Paw Kong had with Ah Niew’s problem (even if we are to weigh things, it is really not a very big case to him since he is a court judge). I liked how Paw Kong showed his love and concern to an orphan by responding on his problems.