There was, a man who came to the palace of the State of Chu and gave the guard a kind of medicine for immortality2 to be presented to the king.
As the guard held the medicine in both hands and walked towards the inner palace, he met an archer3 of the bodyguard4. The archer asked him: "Is what you hold in hands edible5?"
The guard answered: "Of course, it is."
Upon hearing this, the archer snatched the medicine, stuffed it into his mouth and swallowed it.
The King of Chu was very angry. He ordered to have the archer beheaded. The archer said:
"It is not my fault but the fault of the guard, because he told me 'It is edible.' "
Then he continued: "This is a medicine for immortal1 life. Now I have taken it, but I am going to be killed by Your Majesty6. Then, the so-called medicine for immortal life will become `a medicine hastening death', won't it? The man who presented this medicine was trying to decei
