In the State of Chu, there was a man whose family was very poor. Even at night he often dreamt of striking it rich, but he never worked hard.

 

One day, when he was leafing through the book Huainan Zi, he came across a line saying: "When the mantis¹ preys² on the cicada, it relies entirely³ upon a leaf to conceal⁴ its body." He thought that if one could get such a leaf, one could become invisible.

 

Thereupon, he ran into the woods, looking for just such a leaf among the branches. He had searched a long time before he discovered a mantis hiding itself behind a leaf and waiting to catch a cicada. He climbed up the tree at once, and plucked the leaf. But he was in such a big hurry that, out of carelessness, the leaf dropped to the ground. There were many, many fallen leaves on the ground. How could he identify the leaf he had plucked? So he had to put all the leaves into a bamboo basket and carry them home.

 

As soon as he got home, he held up one leaf after another in turn to cover his eye, and kept asking his wife: "Can you see me?"

 

In the beginning, his wife always answered: "Yes, I can."

 

After a long time, she began to feel weird⁵: What was the matter with her husband today? Why did he keep holding up a leaf and asking her the same question?

 

He did this over and over again for one whole day. In the end, his wife got impatient and humoured him by saying: "No, I can't."

 

Hearing this, he became wild with joy. He turned and ran out to the street. Holding the leaf in one hand, he grabbed with the other hand the goods in a shop. But before he could withdraw his hand, he was caught on the spot and handed over to the local yamen.

 

楚国有个人，家里非常贫苦。他晚上做梦也想发笔横财，但是他从来不好好劳动。

 

一天，他翻阅《淮南子》，读到书中这样一句话：蛙螂捕蝉，全靠有一片能遮身的树叶。他想，人要是能得到这片树叶，就能隐身了。

 

于是，他就跑到树林里，朝树枝上寻找这样的树叶。他找了很长时间，终于发现有一只膛螂躲在一片树叶的后面，准备捕蝉。他急忙爬上树，摘下那片树叶。可是，他心急火燎，一不小心，手里的树叶掉到了地上。地上本来就有许许多多落叶，他怎么能分清楚哪片是他摘下的叶子，只好将所有的落叶装进竹筐，背回家中。

 

一到家，他就轮番着一片一片地举起树叶，遮住自己的眼睛，不停地问妻子：“你看得见我吗?”

 

开始时，妻子一直回答：“看得见。”

 

时间长了，妻子感到很奇怪:今天丈夫怎么了，为什么老是这样举起树叶问她?

 

他这样反反复复，折腾了整整一天。最后，他妻子不耐烦了，便随口敷衍了一句：“看不见!

 

哪知道他一听，欣喜若狂，转身跑到大街上，一手举着树叶.一手去捞店铺里的东西。可是他的手还没来得及缩回，就被人当场抓住，扭送到衙门里去了。

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