In the past, there was a man named Wang Cheng in Wangjiazhuang, who was poor but kind. Whoever had any difficulties, he would go to help, and the villagers called him a great good person. This autumn, Wang Cheng's mother passed away, and he really had no money for a funeral, so he had to go to the neighbor Zhang San's house to borrow money.

Zhang San's family was also poor, so how could they have any money to lend Wang Cheng? However, in the past, when Zhang San had difficulties, Wang Cheng helped him a lot. Zhang San felt sorry for himself, and when he looked up and saw the plow leaning against the root of the south wall, he gritted his teeth and said, "This plow is still worth some money.

Wang Cheng refused to say anything. He said, "Although it's almost winter and the plow is not needed for the time being, what can I use to redeem the plow when I plow next spring?"

Zhang San smiled and said, "Let's solve the difficulties in front of you first, and then think of a way to do the rest." Wang Cheng nodded gratefully.

Wang Cheng carried the plow and hurried to the pawnshop. The shopkeeper was not there. The young man looked at his plow and said, "Your plow can be at most fifty coppers."

Wang Cheng said the reason for being a plow, and as he spoke, tears couldn't help but flow out. Seeing that he was pitiful, the young man softened his heart: "Don't you have anything else to add?"

Wang Cheng hurriedly took off the gown on his body and said, "Look, add another one, is that okay?"

The young man looked at the patched gown and shook his head. Wang Cheng had no choice but to give up, and he murmured, "Fifty copper is only enough to buy a mat and dig a pit. Pity my mother, after a lifetime of hard work, I can't even get a thin-skinned coffin."

The young man pawned the ticket, counted out fifty copper coins, and handed it to Wang Cheng. Wang Cheng stretched out his right hand to receive the money, and the young man saw a birthmark the size of a copper coin on his arm, and suddenly retracted the hand that handed the money. The young man asked, "Uncle, you... Are you a good man from Wangjiazhuang?"

Wang Cheng asked, "Do you know me?"

The young man nodded in surprise. It turned out that when the young man was eight years old, his father died of illness, and his mother took him to escape and beg for food. One rainy day, the two fainted on the side of the road, and it was Wang Cheng who saved them. The young man remembered that the benefactor had a birthmark the size of a copper coin on his right wrist. Now that the benefactor is in trouble, how can he stand by and watch?

Suddenly, the young man saw a cricket lying on the handle of the plow and drove it gently, but it did not move. The young man had an idea and immediately reopened the pawn tickets: a cricket and a plow. He said, "Uncle, today I'm going to call the shots. When you hang up the money, go back and take care of the funeral for the old man!" Wang Cheng was overjoyed and didn't have time to think about it, so he ran home with the money and the pawn ticket.

After Wang Cheng used the money to bury his mother, he became sick, and he no longer had money to treat his illness.

In the spring of the second year, farming began. Zhang San knew the difficulties of the great good people, so he tried his best to gather enough money for the redemption and went to the pawnshop to redeem the plow. When the pawnshop boy heard that someone came to redeem the plow, he looked up and said, "There is a plow in the library, not yours!"

Zhang San explained the purpose of his visit, and when the young man heard it, he had a plan in his heart. After he explained Zhang San a few sentences, he quickly went to the warehouse to get the plow, hoping to take advantage of the shopkeeper's absence and end the matter as soon as possible.

At that moment, the shopkeeper walked over. He asked to take a look at the ticket, frowned, and gave the young man a white look. Then he quickly took the ransom, counted it, but it was not less, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhang San said, "The date says today!"

The shopkeeper smiled slyly and said, "That's because the young man is not sensible. When he wrote the ticket, he forgot to add the extra day of the big moon."

Zhang San was anxious: "But I finally got this money together."

At this time, the young man tugged at the shopkeeper's sleeve and said, "Shopkeeper, let him go. If he finds out that the goods are lost later, we can lose more money!" When the young man said this, he deliberately gave Zhang San a wink.

Zhang San understood and said, "Okay! I was about to say that I have two things, cricket and a plow. The plow is still there, but where is cricket?"

The shopkeeper was taken aback and asked, "Can you be a cricket too?"

Zhang San defended according to what the young man just explained: "Mine is a'golden pliers', a male can sell for dozens or even hundreds of taels of silver! Although mine is only a female, it is not valuable, but the eggs in its belly are valuable! It can lay five or six hundred eggs, and when the time comes, it can hatch five or six hundred golden pliers, how much will it cost?"

The shopkeeper said, "Who are you bluffing about? Such a precious cricket, are you willing to be it?"

Zhang San replied: "I'm reluctant, isn't this an emergency for a friend? When it's a cricket alone, it refuses to move its place. If he is forced to pull it down and move the fetal qi, won't the eggs in his stomach be destroyed? I have to be cricket and plow together."

The shopkeeper didn't know what to say for a while. He asked the young man, "You handled this matter. Tell me, what the hell is going on?"

The young man pulled the shopkeeper aside and said quietly, "At the beginning, they had to be plows and crickets together. That cricket was about to give birth to a big belly. I want to wait for it to lay eggs, let's keep some, and when the small crickets hatch, we can sell them for some money."

When the shopkeeper heard that, his eyes turned straight. Seeing the situation, Zhang San said again: "No, you lost my cricket, let's go to the yamen to judge!"

The shopkeeper was in a hurry. He didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so he hurriedly said, "Why alarm the government on such a small matter? Carry the plough, and I don't want the ransom. Zhang San winked at the young man, took the ransom back, carried the plough, and left without looking back.

Later, Zhang San gave the ransom to Wang Cheng for treatment. When Wang Cheng asked where the money came from, Zhang San just smiled and said, "It's about a cricket!"