The Fan That Cost Nothing
A trickster sells a rich man something worthless by making him ask for it first.
On the hottest afternoon of the year Quỳnh sat in the shade of the market wall with a plain paper fan, doing nothing but fanning himself slowly and looking extremely content. A rich merchant, sweating through his good silk, watched him for a while and finally asked what was so special about that fan. Nothing, said Quỳnh, and kept fanning. The merchant offered to buy it. Quỳnh said it was not for sale. The merchant offered more. Quỳnh said it really was just paper. The merchant, now certain he was being cheated out of something wonderful, offered a sum that would have bought a hundred fans, and Quỳnh sighed and handed it over. It was, of course, just paper. It had cost him nothing. What the merchant had actually bought was his own certainty that a thing another man refuses to sell must be worth having.
Trưa nóng nhất trong năm, Quỳnh ngồi bóng mát bên tường chợ, tay phe phẩy cái quạt giấy thường, mặt mày khoan khoái. Một ông nhà giàu mồ hôi ướt cả áo lụa, nhìn mãi rồi hỏi cái quạt ấy có gì hay. Chẳng có gì cả, Quỳnh đáp, rồi quạt tiếp. Ông kia đòi mua. Quỳnh bảo không bán. Ông kia trả thêm. Quỳnh bảo chỉ là giấy thôi mà. Ông nhà giàu càng chắc mình sắp bị hớ mất của quý, bèn trả một món tiền mua được trăm cái quạt. Quỳnh thở dài, đưa cho. Thì đúng là giấy thật, chẳng tốn gì. Cái ông ta mua, thật ra, là lòng tin của chính mình rằng thứ người khác không chịu bán ắt phải quý.
Another episode of the Trạng Quỳnh cycle, Vietnamese oral tradition, first attached to the figure of a semi-legendary scholar and retold for centuries with the details drifting. The bones — refuse to sell, and the price rises by itself — are shared with trickster traditions worldwide. Modern printed, animated and filmed versions exist and none of them was used here.
Public domain: Vietnamese oral folk tradition — the Trạng Quỳnh trickster cycle, no known author, told for centuries. Told here in our own words, deliberately not from: Nguyễn Đổng Chi's printed collection; the Tuttle English editions; any published English translation; the animated series.