One person found that the chimney in his friend's house was too straight and too close to the firewood. Then he reminded his friend, "Those two things are dangerous when they are too close together, you had better bend the chimney and move the firewood otherwise a fire may break out." The host did not accept the advice.

A few days later, a fire did break out due to this. And thanks for the neighbors' help there wasn't much loss. In order to thank them, the host feted all those who had helped, and rewarded each of them according to contributions. But the one that had advised him to change the structure of his kitchen was not among the people who had been thanked. Someone reminded the host of this, "Had you listened to your friend, you would not have to reward us and would not have suffered losses." The host awaked to this and went to invite his friend immediately.

一個人見朋友家煙囪砌得太直，又過于靠近柴火堆，便提醒主人說：“這兩樣東西在一起很危險，最好是把煙囪改成彎曲的，再將干柴挪遠些，否則，容易發生火災。”主人聽了，沒有接受這個建議。

不幾天，主人家果然因此失了火，虧得鄰居紛紛幫忙，才沒有造成更大損失。感激之下，主人殺牛備酒款待鄰居們，按功勞大小一一酬謝，但這些人中卻沒有建議他改變廚房結構的朋友。旁人提醒主人：“如果你聽了你的朋友的建議，不但用不著酬勞大家，還不會遭受損失。”主人醒悟過來，連忙去請自己的朋友。