[The story is taken from Goenggeq gangj gojgaeq Bwz Licuh, At Grand-father’s Knee - Zhuang Folk Tales from Wuming - 主編白丽珠 ; 副主編李作应. The storyteller is Lu Ciming from the town of Luoru in Wuming County, Guangxi]

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Long ago there was an old man who raised two sons. Mind you, they were a poor family; all they had was a small plot of land and several water buffalo.

There came a time when the old man got sick, and it was a grave illness. When he knew he was going to die, he called his sons to his bedside to give them his last instructions. "Oh, my children, what is to be done? Your mother died when you were young, and I have been both your mother and your father, rearing you until now. I think that this illness of mine will take just a few days to send me off to be with your mother. So now the two of you will be left on your own to fend for yourselves. I don't have very much to leave to you, just a few water buffalo and a bit of land. So after I die, I don't want you two brothers to split up and live separately."

The sons both answered "Yes, Father." Then after a few days passed, their father did die.

As for these brothers, the older one was the smarter of the two, while the younger was simple and guileless. After their father died, the older brother said to the younger, "Oh, Little Brother, come over here. I have something to discuss with you. Our mother and our father are both gone now, and we have become orphans. I am the eldest, so you must listen to me.

"When our father was about to die, he told us to stick together, saying that we shouldn't split up and eat from separate bowls. But these days I have been mulling things over, and I have come to the conclusion that it would be better if we did go our separate ways.

"Now there really aren't many things in the house. We only have a few water buffalo and a bit of land. How do you think we should divide them up? There are two of us and three water buffalo. If each of us were to take a buffalo, there would still be one left over. So what should we do? I say we should just handle it like this, and be done with it. The two of us should go at the same time to the buffalo pen and open the door together. After the door is open, we can see who the three buffalo go with. Whoever a buffalo follows, it will belong to that person. Let's do as I have said!"

The younger brother said, "Well, my brother, since Father has died you have taken his place in the family. Now this is what you have said, so let's just do it this way. I will do what you say let it go at that."

The older brother was clever. (In the village we have a saying "Clever as a bird, clever as a mouse" to describe people who get what they want by slyness. The older brother was like that.) He grabbed a fistful of green grass that was very fresh and tender. While the younger brother opened the gate to let the cattle out, the older brother held the grass out and walked along. All the buffalo saw the tempting grass he was holding, and of course they went along following after him.

The younger brother thought to himself, "My word! All of these water buffalo like my older brother; every one of them wanted to go with him." Thus the older brother took possession of all three buffalo.

After the older brother got the water buffalo, he went on to say, "Hey, Little Brother, you know I would have been willing to give you one of these water buffalo, but when we went to open the door every single one of them followed me. That proves that they all recognize me as their owner, and so I'll just have to take all three of them. Now I have all three of the water buffalo, which means that you don't have any. Since that's the case, you don't have any use for the land now, do you?"

The younger brother said, "You are right, since I don't have any water buffalo, what would I do with a field? I will let you take the field and just keep everything for yourself." And so the older brother got all three water buffalo and all of the land as well.

"What about the plow, Little Brother?"

"I don't want the plow either. Since you have the water buffalo and the land is yours also, you might as well take the plow too."

"Well then, how about this house? When Father was still with us, the two of us lived together here with him. But now I have to raise three water buffalo by myself, and I also have to work the fields on my own. Oh, Little Brother, this isn't a good situation. I think you had just better go and look for somewhere else to live."

"Well, if that's the way it is, that's the way it is. It's 19 okay. You carry on here and I hope things go well for you. And so the older brother got all three water buffalo, all of the fields, and absolutely everything in the house, including the shovel, the hoe and all the tools. The younger brother didn't get one single thing. The younger brother thought to himself, "My brother has turned me out empty-handed.

Well, now that it has happened, I'll just accept it. I'll go off by myself and see what happens.

The younger brother went up into the mountains, wandering about day after day in the hill country. When he got hungry, he would eat vhatever he could find. If he found some kind of fruit over here, or some herb over there, whatever was edible, he would eat it. Time went on, and a month became a whole year. All that time he ate bark and bitter herbs; not one grain of rice went into his stomach. He wandered around as he pleased, going up on the mountains and into the forests. The sun and the rain beat down on him as he wandered over the mountains and across the valleys. When it got dark, he slept wherever he happened to be; when he got hungry he ate whatever fruit or plant he happened upon.

Whatever there was on the mountains and in the forests, he ate. His older brother never gave him any thought while he himself was eating well and living comfortably down in the village.

One day the younger brother, after eating in the wild like this for so long, broke wind with a "blat". He noticed that it was quite fragrant. He thought to himself, "When people break wind, it really stinks. How is it that when I do it, it's so fragrant! Hey, here I am without a penny to my name. I might as well take myself down to the market and try selling my farts. Maybe I could make some money!"

So the younger brother went to town and walked along the street calling out, "Hey! Aunts and uncles, young and old, everyone listen up! Today I have come to market without carrying along anything to sell. But I am quite an unusual fellow, unlike anyone else. When other people break wind, it makes a foul odor, but when I break wind, it is sweetsmelling. If you don't believe me, I'll break wind right now and let everyone take a whiff of the fragrance."

Now this fellow was really talented. If he wanted to break wind, he did, and if he didn't want to, he didn't. He really could do it at will like that. So after he said that, he just broke wind, "blat", and everyone went over to smell for themselves.

"My! That boy, his farts really and truly are fragrant! If we brought out our storage chests and had him break wind into them, then wouldn't our clothes and our quilts smell nice!" So all the wealthy people brought out their chests and boxes. "Here, here! Wait for me to open up this chest and then you break wind into it. Then I will seal it back up so that the clothes inside will become sweet-smelling."

So on that day the younger brother broke wind for customers more than a dozen times, and each time he got a dollar or two. It was really worth his while. He would break wind, producing a fragrant fart, and each one was worth money.

Well, he kept on doing business like this, and pretty soon he had a lot of money. He became rich, and he could afford to buy a house, some cattle, and some fields. After a while, he was living more comfortably than his older brother.

When the older brother saw that his little brother had become wealthy, he thought to himself, "When we divided up the household goods, I didn't give a single thing to him, so how is it that he has become rich? How did he do it?"

He went over to his younger brother's new house to ask him. "Hey Little Brother, how are you? I heard that you have gotten quite rich. You've built a new house and bought some fields and water buffalo."

"That's right."

"But you were totally penniless; you didn't have a thing. So how did you manage to get rich?"

"Well, I'll tell you how it happened," the younger brother said. "The year that our father died, I had nothing. You turned me out of the house, so I went up into the forest and ate whatever I could find. After that, when I broke wind my farts were fragrant, so I made my living by selling them.

That's how I did it.

"That's how you did it?"

"Yes, that was it!"

"Oh. Well, I guess that's pretty good. Perhaps I'll take a turn at it myself."

So the older brother went out. p the forest. When he got hungry, he also ate whatever ne happened to find. Whatever he saw, he ate. After a while the same thing happened again; when he broke wind, i realty was fragrant.

"Okay, now it's time for me to go and sell them." On that very day he went into town to the tmarket and called out,

"Selling fragrant farts! Fragrant farts for sale! Whoever wants fragrant farts, come and buy them!"

The rich town dwellers passed the news from one to another: "That fellow who sells fragrant farts has come back again," and they brought out their chests of quilts and clothes. One of them said, "Come over here! Come on! This time I will give you a dollar more than before. Let out one or two right here into my box."

He lifted up the lid and went "blat". Who would have imagined that instead of breaking wind, the older brother had diarrhea, and it spurted down onto the quilt. It stunk to high heaven! The angry mob then beat the older brother senseless.

This story teaches us that we should not be evil and malicious. Instead we should be kindhearted and good.