疑人偷斧

Yí Rén Tōu Fǔ

怀疑别人偷了自己的斧子。比喻心里有成见,看什么都觉得别人有问题。

Suspecting someone of stealing your axe — once suspicion takes hold, everything they do starts to look guilty.

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Long ago there was a man who lost his axe. He searched everywhere and couldn't find it. Soon he began to suspect that his neighbor's son had taken it.

From then on, whenever he saw that boy, every detail seemed suspicious. The way he walked looked like someone who had stolen an axe. The way he spoke sounded like it. Even the look on his face seemed to confirm it. The more he watched, the more certain he felt.

A few days later, the man went into the valley to chop firewood. There, under a pile of grass, he found the missing axe — he had left it there himself.

He brought it home and saw the neighbor's son again. This time, the boy's walk seemed perfectly ordinary, his voice completely normal, his face nothing but honest.

This is the story of suspecting someone of stealing your axe. It reminds us that once doubt takes hold, everything can look guilty — so we must first set aside our bias before we judge.