D2

Story of the Week: A Strange Chinese Drum

Audio:
A Strange Chinese Drum.

Transcription:
Today is Tuesday, January 10th, 2006. Welcome to the Story of the Week, which now features a transcription, for those unable to listen to the audio file.

Today’s Story of the Week is…
“A Strange Chinese Drum”

There was once a village, a peaceful village out on the border. One day, the emperor lost his sanity and decreed that all elderly people should die. Old people, who did not work or fight, were considered useless. And so it came to be that many elders perished, being forced to march into woods and deserts to their deaths.

But one faithful son hid his elderly mother near the top of a mountain.

Many people came to the emperor begging him to stop his insanity. Finally, he agreed to rescind his decree only if someone could provide him a strange Chinese drum. Specifically, he wanted one that required no movement to make a beat. Nobody, not even the intelligent young men of the village could come up with a solution.

But the faithful son came to his elderly mother and asked her if she knew the answer. She smiled and whispered something to his ear. The young man smiled knowingly and immediately set out to tell his friends the answer. They then brought a strange Chinese drum to the emperor, and upon seeing the answer to his inane riddle he became sane once more and rescinded his decree.

When the faithful son took his elderly mother back to the village, everyone became grateful. They all wondered what the answer to the riddle was. The elderly mother smiled, and said:

“I was asked that riddle when I was a little girl. I simply trapped a bee inside a drum and let the bee do the beating for me.”

The Story of the Week is currently being recorded every Tuesday at greybeta dot livejournal dot com.