Bit by Bit - Chapter 24, Part 19

Trey Smith

Not long afterwards, Tzu-ch'i sent his son K'un on an errand to the state of Yen, and along the way he was seized by bandits. They considered that he would be difficult to sell as a slave in his present state, but that if they cut off his feet they could dispose of him easily. Accordingly they cut off his feet and sold him in the state of Ch'i. As it happened, he was made gatekeeper of the inner chamber in the palace of Duke K'ang, and so was able to eat meat until the end of his days.
~ Burton Watson translation ~

The twist in this tale (most of which was featured yesterday) simply points to the fact that what we expect is not always what we get! Try as we might, we often misread the tea leaves.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.