Men Do Not Know Their Own Faults
by Abigail C.
Once, a long time ago, there
lived a man named Chi. Chi lived in a small village on the outskirts
of the big city of Peking. Chi had lots of friends. Some lived
in the village and others lived in the city. One day, Chi awoke
and said to himself, "From now on I will be completely honest
with myself and my friends." He told his friend Ching, the
merchant, that he was too fat. He told his friend Lu, the scholar,
that his robe was too coarse. His friends did not like being told
what Chi thought was wrong with them and started to hate him.
Chi, on the other hand, knew nothing of this, only that his friends
had been acting very strangely.
One morning, Chi stepped
out of his house, hoping to see a friend passing by. As he looked
around, he saw Ching the merchant. When Ching saw Chi, he suddenly
turned away and ran.
"Ching, wait!"
called Chi.
Ching did not even turn
around.
"Hmm! I guess he was
busy," thought Chi. Soon Chi started to notice that his friends
were keeping away from him more and more and would not come places
with him.
That night, as Chi lay on
his bed mat, he thought about how his friends had been acting.
"Did I say something wrong to them?" he wondered out
loud. "No, I couldn't have done anything without knowing
it. They must appreciate the truth and that I am trying to be
a good friend by pointing out their faults. They're probably just
playing a trick," he decided. Little did Chi know that his
friends were in the teashop talking about him at that very moment,
"He was so rude to
me today!" cried Ching. "I am perfectly fit, solid muscle
through and through!"
"He insulted the fabric
of my robe yesterday!" complained Lu, "It may not be
from the Emperor's closet, but it is a perfectly fine robe!"
They talked all night about what he had done and what to do about
it.
The next morning, as Chi
ate his rice with his chopsticks, he felt shaky and uneasy. He
felt that he was being watched. When he stepped outside and he
almost expected someone to jump down on him. Something was very
wrong here. His friends weren't outside as they usually were.
He went over to Ching's house and knocked; a minute later, he
saw Ching looking through the window to see who was there. As
soon as Ching saw Chi standing there, he immediately left, not
even opening the door.
Chi turned away unhappily. "I guess maybe I should leave," he thought sadly. "I have no friends now, so I guess I should move and make new friends." But wherever Chi went he never could understand why his new friends would quickly become mad at him. Even though Chi could find the faults in others he never saw them in himself.