The Flies Who Paid A Debt Of Gratitude

During China's Sai Dynasty (A.D.581-618) in the busy capital city there lived a ordinary person whose name was Mr. Wang Wu. He made wine and he made a living out of it. Although Wang Wu was an ordinary person, he was very compassionate. For instance, when he made wine there were many flies who were greedy of the fragrance of the wine. Thus they often fell down into the wine cask and nearly got drowned. Then Wang Wu would carefully drained the flies and dried them up with ash. When the flies woke up and were able to fly, he released all of them as a work of merit.
One thing that's worth praising was that this virtues did not end in five minutes. Instead it continued day after day, month after month and year after year. He persisted in his virtues without stopping.
One year misfortune came as someone lodged a false accusation against him. Wang Wu was very worried as he saw the day of execution was nearing. "Honestly I am innocent, but what can I do?"
However, a miracle happened. When the executioner was just about to write the execution statement, suddenly there came millions of flies who risked their lives to seize the head of the brush pen. Therefore the executioner could not write anything. It would not have been extraordinary when it happened once. Whenever the executioner started to write, the samething happened again and again. The officer then could not refrain from asking himself,
"What'shappening? I have been an executioner for years and I have never encountered anything like this. Perhaps someone has laid an unjust charge against him? I'd better ask my superior to investigate the case."
Because of the flies' rescue, Wang Wu finally regained his life from 'the gate of the hell'.
After careful investigation of Wang's case by the superior,Wang Wu was proved innocent and eventually he was released. From then on Wang Wu went back to his normal and happy life.
Extract of The Buddhist Children's Stories, page 14-16, published by TheWhite Cloud Cultural Centre, Taipei Taiwan