A person in the state of Chu, trying to sell his pheasant(野雞), lied to people by saying that what was in his hand was a phoenix(鳳凰).

A passerby believed him and bought it for twenty pieces of gold.

The passerby wanted to present it to the king of the state of Chu. But out of his expectation, the pheasant died the next day. The passerby did not value the money but regret that he could not present it to the king. This story went around the whole country, and every one believed that it was a true phoenix.

Hearing of this, the king of the state of Chu was moved by the loyalty of his subjects. The king then called in the man who had wanted to present the phoenix, and gave him awards that were worth ten times the money he had paid for the pheasant.

一個楚國人為了把山雞賣出去，謊稱自己手里拿的是一只鳳凰。

一個過路人相信了他的話，拿出二十金把它買了下來。

過路人想把鳳凰獻給楚王，沒想到過了一夜，山雞就死了。過路人并不痛惜金錢，只恨自己沒能把鳳凰獻給楚王。這件事在全國傳開，人們都以為那山雞是只真鳳凰。

楚王得知這件事后，也被臣民的一片忠心所感動，于是召見了要獻鳳凰的人，給了他買鳳凰十倍的賞賜。