Cover One's Ears to Steal a Bell

Characters:

Pronunciation: yan(3) er(3) dao(4) ling(2)

Explanation: Meaning to cheat one's self

Tone: negative

The Story: Long long ago, there was a man who saw a bell at his neighbor's gate and he wanted to steal it. He knew that as long as he touched the bell, it would ring, so he had to find a way to solve this. Suddenly, an idea came into his mind and he said to himself, "The reason I can hear the bell ring is because I have ears, but if I plug them, I can't hear it anymore, then I can get the bell. "

Then he found something to plug his ears and stepped toward the bell. Just at the moment he got the bell, he was caught, as other people's ears are not plugged.

Usage Example (Pinyin): Ta(1) men(2) de xing(2) wei(2) jiu(4) xiang(4) yan(3) er(3) dao(4) ling(2), hen(3) yu(2) chun(3).

Usage Example (English translation): What they are doing now is just like covering their ears to steal a bell. It's stupid.

Note: The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4 spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create those above where after each syllable we tell you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms newsletter with a good offline study program.