Proverb Interpretation:
As a result of doing something stupid, the things that were trying to be hidden were instead exposed more thoroughly.
origin:
In ancient times, there was a man, let’s call him Zhang San for the time being. This Zhang San had worked very hard to save up 300 taels of silver, and while he was happy, he was very distressed because he did not know where to put the 300 taels of silver in the safest place. If he carries it on his body, the three hundred taels of silver is not only very heavy, but also easy to be stolen by thieves; if he puts it at home, he can’t find a good place to hide the silver. Thinking about it, Zhang San finally came up with a good idea, that is, in the dead of night, quietly buried the three hundred taels of silver to the backyard of his house. After burying the silver, Zhang San finally slept soundly.
The next day, Zhang San woke up and remembered his silver, still uneasy. In order to make sure that the silver would not be found by others, Zhang San found a piece of board and wrote seven words on it: “There is no silver here, there are three hundred taels here”. After that, Zhang San stood the board on top of the land where he buried the silver, and was very proud of himself, thinking that no one would be able to find out about his silver now.
Zhang San’s next-door neighbour, Wang Er, had long noticed Zhang San’s restlessness. The plank that Zhang San was standing on in the backyard was just seen by Wang Er. “Three hundred taels here and there?” Wang Er read the words on it and immediately knew that there must be three hundred taels of silver buried here. So he stole the silver quietly when Zhang San was not paying attention.
Although Wang Er stole the silver, he was very worried about being discovered. He thought about it and came up with a good idea. So Wang Er got a pen and wrote seven words on the back of the board, “Next door Wang Er never stole”.
The two stupid people tried to cover up their behaviour with their own stupid ways, and both of them ended up in failure. Later, people used the idiom of “Here, there is no silver, three hundred taels” to describe the fact that because of the stupidity of doing something, the thing that they wanted to hide was exposed even more thoroughly.
