五四 责 任
大师与一位弟子外出，在村郊邂逅了执政官。他误以为他们是来迎请他入村的。便说：「你们实在大可不必千里迢迢地迎接我的。」
「您误会了，大人。」弟子说：「我们正要出外旅行，但是如果我们知道您会来，冒再大的风霜，我们也会前来迎接您的。」
大师不发一言。直到傍晚时分，他才说：「为什么你一定要让他知道我们不是来欢迎他的呢？你可瞧见他的一副尴尬相？」
「我们应该告诉他实情，否则我们不是有意欺骗他吗？」
「我们一点也没有欺骗他。」大师说：「是他在欺骗自己。」
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.”