After the fall of the house of Fan, a man got hold of a bronze bell. It was too big to carry away on his back, and when he tried to break it with a hammer it made such a din that he feared others might hear and take it away from him. So he hastily stopped his ears instead of silencing the bell.
It was all right to worry about others hearing the noise, but foolish to stop his own ears.
Allegorical Meaning
The fable criticizes self-deception of selective perception, when you can’t cover your ears to muffle truth.
The Anatomy of Absurdity
The thief’s act — covering his own ears while stealing a loudly ringing bell — epitomizes flawed causality:
- He mistakes subjective silence (his blocked hearing) for objective silence (the bell’s actual sound).
- This reveals a universal human trap: believing reality changes because we ignore it.
Cognitive Dissonance as Armor
The fable dissects willful ignorance:
- Physical Metaphor: Ears blocked = refusing inconvenient truths.
- Psychological Violence: Sacrificing reason to preserve ego (“If I don’t hear it, it isn’t happening”).
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