When Chen Xiang served as the head of the Pucheng county¹, Fujian province in Song Dynasty, he once arrested a group of suspects, but could not tell which one was the thief.

 

He called together all the suspects and told them, "A bell in a temple can tell who is the thief, and it is very sensitive. Later, all of you must touch the bell, and if the bell rings, then the one who touched it is the thief." He then secretly ordered people to carry the bell here and painted it with black ink, and covered it with a cloth. Then he ordered those suspects to touch the bell one by one.

 

After doing this, he checked the palm of all the suspects and interrogated² the only one whose palm hadn't been blackened. This suspect turned out to be the thief. Because he feared that the bell would ring, he did not dare to touch the bell.

 

宋朝陈襄在福建蒲城做县令时，县尉抓了一批嫌疑犯，但不能确定其中谁是小偷。

 

陈襄将这些嫌疑犯召集到一起，告诉他们说：“某寺庙里的一口钟能验明谁是盗贼，非常灵敏。待会儿你们每个人都必须摸一下，若是钟被摸响了，那么，这个人就是小偷。”又密令衙史将钟抬来，抹上墨汁，围上布帷子，命令嫌疑犯逐一将手伸进帷布摸钟。

 

事后检查每个人的手掌，对唯一没有染黑即没有摸钟的那个人进行审讯，果然这个人就是小偷，因为他害怕钟真的会被摸响，因而不敢伸手接触钟臂。

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