A person of the state of Wei claimed that he could carve a figure of a rhesus monkey on a sour jujube(棗子) 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 carving 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 Majesty 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(欺騙的) trick had been brought to light, so he took his baggage and fled stealthily(暗地里).

一個衛國人聲稱自己能自己能在酸棗尖上雕刻出獼猴的圖像。

燕王相信了他的話，給了他優厚的俸祿，盡管沒有看見他刻的獼猴。

一個鐵匠聽說這件事后，晉見燕王說：“我是一個制造刻刀的人，我知道各種小巧的珍玩都是用刻刀雕刻出來的。從道理上講，被刻的東西必須比刀尖大，而酸棗刺尖的體積比刻刀尖要小得多，怎么能在上面雕刻呢?大王如果不信，可以讓他拿出刻刀來，就能夠知道他是否刻得獼猴來。”燕王聞言便想看一下衛國人的刻刀，衛人知道自己的把戲被揭穿，于是帶上自己的行李暗中逃走。