Who Stole the Egg?

Bao-gong was appointed as an official. When his elder brother's wife heard about this, she thought: "He is too young to sit in the yamen and make decisions." So, she decided to test Bao-gong.

She boiled an egg hard, ordered her maid Chun-xiang to eat it, and then said to Bao-gong:

"I left an egg in the room this morning, but someone ate it. How can we find out who did it without wrongly accusing anyone?"

Bao-gong began to ponder: only the maids enter the elder sister-in-law's room, so surely one of them must have taken the egg. But how to find out which one? There are several of them!

Bao-gong brought a bench and a small table into the courtyard, placed two cups on the table: one with water, the other empty. He sat down nearby, called the maids, lined them up in front of the table, and ordered each to take a sip from the cup, rinse their mouth, and spit the water into the empty cup. The girls did as instructed. Everyone's water was clear, but in Chun-xiang's, there were yellow specks floating.

Then Bao-gong took a brush and wrote: "Since it has been established that Chun-xiang stole the egg, she should be punished. However, since this is her first offense, mercy should be shown, and the offender should be forgiven. The other maids are not involved in this matter, nor are any other people."

The sister-in-law then realized that Bao-gong was fair and knew how to distinguish truth from lies. She was reassured and allowed him to go to serve in the yamen.

More fairy tales

• How Judge Bao Interrogated a Donkey
• The Tale of the Spotted Calf
• The Monkey and the Grasshopper
• Tsar Bacha and the Ants
• Why the Sun Rises When the Rooster Crows