A county magistrate disguised himself as a woodcutter to see how the people lived. While looking around the town, he felt thirsty and knocked on the gate of a rich man’s house nearby.
“I’m a woodcutter passing by. I’m so thirsty. Would you give me a glass of cold water?”
Then the rich man, who was standing near the gate, saw the poorly dressed woodcutter. With a displeased look on his face, he called his servant and said,
“This man says he’s thirsty. Give him a large bowl of water to drink.”
When the servant brought out a bowl of water, he poured it over the woodcutter; he seemed to have done that many times before.
After being treated in such a humilitating way, the magistrate returned to his office and changed his clothes. Wearing his official uniform, he went back to the rich man’s house. When the rich man saw the the magistrate, he rant out barefoot.
After a while, the magistrate was served a sumptuous meal. Then he asked the rich man to bring him a bowl of water. The richman wondered, but he hid his feeling and told his servant to bring a bowl of water.
When the magistrate was given the bowl of water, he suddenly poured it over his own clothes. The rich man was taken aback that he didn’t know what to do. Seeing this, the magistrate said,
“You didn’t look at me myself, but my clothing, when you served this much food and water. So it’s natural for me to give this food to my clothing, isn’t it?”
Only then did the rich man recognize that the woodcutter was the magistrate, and apologized to him by repeatedly bowing his head with his face to the ground.