Plugging One's Ears While Stealing a Bell

During the Spring and Autumn period, Zhi Bo of the Spring and Autumn period, Zhi Bo of the State of Jin destroyed Fan's family.Taking advantage of this occasion, a man went to Fan's house and tried to steal something.As soon as the man entered the gate, he saw that there hung a big bell in the courtyard.The bell was cast in high-quality bronza, and was beautiful in design and shape.The theif was very glad,and decided to carry this beautiful bell back home.But no matter how hard he tried,he could not move the bell,because the bell was both big and heavy. He thought and thought again, and believed there was only one way to solve the problem.He had to break the bell to pieces before he was able to carry them back to his home separately.

The thief found a big iron hammer, with which he struck the bell with all his might.The striking produced an enormous crashing sound, which might.The striking produced an enormous crashing sound, which made the thief terribly frightened.The thief got flurried,thinking that it was too bad to have produced the crashiing sound which would himself on the bell, trying to muffle the crashing sound with his arms. But how could the crashing sound of the bell be muffled? The crashing sound still kept drifting melodiously to distant places. The more he listened to the sound, the more frightened hw became. He xubconsciously shrank back, and covered his ears hard with his hands."Hey, the sound becomes fainter, inaudible," the thief became cheerful at once, "wonderful! The sound of the bell can not be heard when the ears are covered." He immediately got some odd bits of cloth, made two rolls with them, and had his ears plugged with the two cloth rolls.He thought that in this way nobody could hear the sound of the bell.Feeling relieved, he began striking the bell, one blow after another. The resounding sound of the bell was heard at distant places, and finally people caught the thief by gracing the sound.

This story comes from "Knowing Yourself" in The Annals by Buwei, written just before the Qin Dynasty（221-207 B.C.）was founded.Allegedly, when Li Yuan, Emperor Gao Zu of the Tang Dynasty（618-907），read this story, he felt it simply ridiculous and said, "This is what is called plugging one's ears while stealing a bell."

Later, people have used the set phrase "plugging one's ears while stealing a bell" to refer to the ignorance and foolishness of the person who deceives himself as well as others.

掩耳盜鈴

春秋時侯，晉國貴族智伯滅掉了范氏。有人趁機跑到范氏家裡想偷點東西，看見院子裡吊著一口大鐘。鍾是用上等青銅鑄成的，造型和圖案都很精美。小偷心裡高興極了，想把這口精美的大鐘背回自已家去。可是鍾又大又重，怎麼也挪不動。他想來想去，只有一個辦法，那就是把鍾敲碎，然後再分別搬回家。

小偷找來一把大大錘，拚命朝鍾砸去，光的一聲巨響，把他嚇了一大跳。小偷著慌，心想這下糟了，這種聲不就等於是告訴人們我正在這裡偷鍾嗎？他心裡一急，身子一下子撲到了鍾上，張開雙臂想摀住鐘聲，可鐘聲又怎麼捂得住呢！鐘聲依然悠悠地傳向遠方。

他越聽越害怕，不同自由地抽回雙手，使勁摀住自已的耳朵。「咦，鐘聲變小了，聽不見了！」小偷高興起來，「妙極了！把耳朵摀住不住就聽不進鐘聲了嗎！」 他立刻找來兩個布團，把耳朵塞住，心想，這下誰也聽不見鐘聲了。於是就放手砸起鍾來，一下一下，鐘聲響亮地傳到很遠的地方。人們聽到鐘聲蜂擁而至把小偷捉住了。

故事出自《呂氏春秋·自知》「掩耳盜鍾」被說成「掩耳盜鈴」，比喻愚蠢自欺的掩飾行為。