大慧普覺禪師宗門武庫 1.107

1.107

One day Master Wuzu said: 'What is our Chan here like? It is like a family skilled at being thieves. One day the son said: "After my father grows old, how will I support the family? I must learn a trade to make a living." He then spoke to his father, and the father said: "Very good." One night he led him to a wealthy house, dug through the wall to enter the residence, and opened a chest, instructing the son to climb inside to take the clothes and silks. As soon as the son entered the chest, the father shut it, locked it again, and deliberately knocked and made noise in the hallway to startle the household, then escaped back through the hole first. The family immediately got up, lit torches, and saw there was a thief, but he had already gone. The thief's son, inside the chest, said to himself: "Why would my father do this to me?" While feeling distressed, he devised a plan and made the sound of a rat gnawing. The family sent a maidservant with a lamp to open the chest. As soon as the chest opened, the thief's son sprang up, blew out the lamp, knocked the maidservant down, and ran out. The family pursued him halfway along the road. The thief's son suddenly saw a well; he pushed a giant stone into the well, and the pursuers searched in the well instead. The thief's son ran straight home and asked his father. The father said: "Say no more—how did you get out?" The son explained the details of what had happened. The father said: "If you can do that, you are fully capable."'