Let's Learn Chinese ldioms

掩耳盗铃

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

Plug one's ears while stealing a bell

Once upon a time during the Spring and Autumn Period (770B.C.-476B.C.), a burglar snuck into a house whose owner had died. Looking around, he found nothing except a bell.

"What a treasure! It must be very old," he thought and decided to carry it home. But the bell was too heavy to carry by himself. After thinking a while, he had an idea. He could sell the metal instead. He would smash the bell into pieces and sell the pieces.

He found a hammer and started at it. As soon as the hammer hit the bell, it rang loudly. Instinctively, he threw the hammer away and covered his ears with his hands. Worried about someone hearing the bell, he tried to think of a way of reducing the noise.

He noticed when he covered his ears, he could hardly hear a thing! Thus, he stuffed his ears with cotton wool and started to hammering away. His plan worked! He could not hear a thing. He almost jumped for joy and hammered harder.

Of course the noise alerted a neighbor who rushed to the spot and caught him red-handed.

Anyone who does something bad but thinks he can deceive others by feigning innocence is called yan er dao ling. It means a person playing the role of an ostrich burying its head in the sand, fooling nobody except himself.