A person of the state of Wei claimed that he could carve a figure of a rhesus monkey on a sour jujube thorn.

The King of the state of Yan believed what he said and gave him a good salary.

A blacksmith heard all this and called on the king and said, "I make carving¹ knives and I know that all the delicate playthings are made with a carving knife. In theory, the things that are carved must be bigger than the tip of the knife. The tip of a thorn is much smaller than that of the knife. How could he carve on the tip of a thorn? If your Majesty² doubts this, you can just tell him to show his knife. Then you will know whether he could do it or not." Hearing that the king wanted to see his knife, the person from Wei knew that his deceitful trick had been brought to light, so he took his baggage and fled stealthily.

一个卫国人声称自己能自己能在酸枣尖上雕刻出猕猴的图像。

燕王相信了他的话，给了他优厚的俸禄，尽管没有看见他刻的猕猴。

一个铁匠听说这件事后，晋见燕王说：“我是一个制造刻刀的人，我知道各种小巧的珍玩都是用刻刀雕刻出来的。从道理上讲，被刻的东西必须比刀尖大，而酸枣刺尖的体积比刻刀尖要小得多，怎么能在上面雕刻呢？大王如果不信，可以让他拿出刻刀来，就能够知道他是否刻得猕猴来。”燕王闻言便想看一下卫国人的刻刀，卫人知道自己的把戏被揭穿，于是带上自己的行李暗中逃走。