Cover Ear, Steal Bell

Informant: David Huang, 22, M

Date Collected: 5/24/14

Genre: Proverb

Informant Data: David Huang was born in Wuhan, China, moved to Kentucky, and then to Florida and grew up there. He speaks Chinese at home, and is fluent. He occasionally attended local weekend Chinese school as a child, but as a youngster studied Chinese on his own. His parents are Chinese immigrants, and he learned of this proverb from a book he read as a child. This interview was collected on Dartmouth campus.

Text/Texture 

Chinese: 掩耳盗铃 (Yǎn' ěr dào líng)

Literal Translation: Cover ear, steal bell

Free Translation: N/A

Context: This proverb is used in general situations (not necessarily extreme cases), and is used to encourage a general sense of awareness of surroundings--and not focus on the self but also on others.

Meaning/Interpretation: There once was a would-be thief who went into a wealthy guy’s home and sees a huge bell. The thief is an idiot and wants to steal the bell. However, the bell is too large, so he comes up with an idea to break it up into smaller pieces by hammering it. When he starts to hammer it, there is a large sound. The guy decides to cover his ears, reasoning that there is then no sound anymore. And so he begins to hammer until people come and arrest him. The moral is: "just because you can't see something or not know something, it doesn't mean others can't as well."