五四 責 任
大師與一位弟子外出，在村郊邂逅了執政官。他誤以為他們是來迎請他入村的。便說：「你們實在大可不必千里迢迢地迎接我的。」
「您誤會了，大人。」弟子說：「我們正要出外旅行，但是如果我們知道您會來，冒再大的風霜，我們也會前來迎接您的。」
大師不發一言。直到傍晚時分，他才說：「為什麼你一定要讓他知道我們不是來歡迎他的呢？你可瞧見他的一副尷尬相？」
「我們應該告訴他實情，否則我們不是有意欺騙他嗎？」
「我們一點也沒有欺騙他。」大師說：「是他在欺騙自己。」
RESPONSIBILITY
The Master set out on a journey with one of his disciples. At the outskirts of the
village they ran into the Governor who, mistakenly thinking they had come to welcome
him to the village, said, “You really didn’t have to go to all this trouble to welcome me.”
“You are mistaken, Your Highness,” said the disciple. “We’re on a journey but had we
known you were coming we would have gone to even greater pains to welcome you.”
The Master did not say a word. Towards evening he said, “Did you have to tell him
that we had not come to welcome him? Did you see how foolish he felt?”
“But had we not told him the truth, would we not have been guilty of deceiving him?”
“We would not have deceived him at all.” said the Master. “He would have deceived
himself.”