ZQ:  Now, it's time for a story on ancient Chinese wisdom. Here is Yixiu.

In the Song Dynasty about a thousand years ago, there was a magistrate by the name of Chen Xiang, in Fujian, a coastal province in southeast China.

One night there was a burglary in a hotel involving a large amount of money. The police quickly detained all the suspects in the hotel and its neighborhood.  There were fifteen in all.  But no one admitted stealing.

At the initial hearing, Magistrate Chen did not have sufficient evidence to bring charges against anyone.  Then he announced that in a temple north of the city, there was an old bronze bell that had the divine power of telling a thief from an honest person.

He sent a few policemen to borrow the bell.  After it was placed in the courtroom, the magistrate bowed to the bell and solemnly asked it to pass its verdict on the case in question.  The fifteen suspects were brought before the bell.  Each was to touch the bell with his hands.  He told them that if a man was innocent, the bell would remain silent when he touched it.  But if the man was guilty, the bell would ring. 

Then all the lights were turned off and the courtroom became pitch-dark.  One by one the suspects walked up to the bronze bell placed behind a screen and put their hands on it.  The bell gave no sound and the audience in the courtroom was disappointed, as everyone had passed the test.

When lights were switched on, the magistrate asked them to stretch out their hands.  Among all the black hands, there was a pair of clean ones.

"You are the thief," said Magistrate Chen, pointing to the man whose hands were clean.

Earlier, the magistrate had the bell sprayed with soot. The thief dared not to touch it for fear that it might betray him.

The man, now under custody, confessed to the theft he had committed.