This story is about a quarrelsome tailor and his wife.
The tailor had a terrible temper and always found fault with his wife.
No matter what she did—cooking, washing clothes, sweeping the floor—he was never satisfied and grumbled constantly.
Sometimes he even hit her and cursed at her.
His wife was actually a very good woman. She was hardworking, getting up early every day to do her chores; she was kind and never argued with anyone; she was also religious and often prayed quietly.
But none of this mattered; her husband still didn’t like her.
How did people find out about this?
The villagers had known about this for a long time, but no one had ever done anything about it.
Later, someone reported it to the local authorities.
The authorities sent someone to question the tailor and found that he really did beat his wife frequently.
So they put the tailor in prison, where he was given bread and cold water to eat and drink, and he had a hard time.
After a while, the authorities released him, but made him swear in public:
“I will never beat my wife again. I will live with her happily, sharing the good times and the bad.”
The tailor nodded and said, “I swear, I will change.”
Did he really change at first?
For the first few days after he was released, he was indeed well-behaved. He didn’t curse or hit anyone, and the house was quiet.
Everyone thought he had changed for the better.
But before long, his old habits resurfaced.
He started complaining again, saying that his wife hadn’t done this right and hadn’t done that right.
But he remembered his oath and didn’t dare to hit her, so he changed his approach—
He rushed forward, grabbed his wife’s hair, and tried to pull her over to scold her.
His wife screamed in pain, broke free from him, and ran into the courtyard.
The tailor wouldn’t give up and grabbed the ruler and scissors he was using to make clothes and chased after her.
He threw things at her as he chased her, throwing the scissors and hitting her with the ruler, and even picked up small stones and threw them at her.
How did he explain his behavior?
The neighbors heard the commotion and rushed over to help separate the two.
They went to report him to the authorities again. The authorities summoned the tailor again and asked him, “Didn’t you swear to share your hardships with your wife? Why did you cause such a commotion?”
The tailor was not flustered at all and said with a smile,
“Your Honor, I have always kept my promise! I didn’t hit her. I was ‘sharing my hardships’ with her!”
The judge was stunned: “What do you mean?”
The tailor said:
“Look, every time I throw something at her and it hits her, she feels pain, and I feel happy—that’s her suffering and my pleasure.
If I miss, she laughs, and I get angry—that’s her happiness and my suffering.
So, we’ve always been ‘sharing the same hardships,’ never apart for a moment!”
What did the judge think?
The judge heard this and laughed angrily.
He knew this man wasn’t really trying to change, but just talking nonsense to make excuses.
What he said sounded reasonable, but he was twisting the meaning and taking advantage of an honest person.
“Sharing the good and the bad” originally meant that a couple should take care of each other and face life’s ups and downs together.
But this tailor turned it into “I hit you, you feel pain, I feel happy; you dodge, you feel happy, I feel pain”—this isn’t ‘sharing’ at all, it’s “mutual torment.”
The judge said, “You’re not keeping your promise; you’re playing with words. You don’t respect your wife at all.”
In the end, the tailor was punished again. This time, he couldn’t come up with any clever excuses and could only bow his head and admit his mistake.
The truth behind the story
On the surface, this story is a joke about a man using twisted logic to justify himself.
But it actually addresses a very serious issue: some people use “correct words” to do wrong things.
Like the tailor, who said, “I kept my oath,” but he didn’t care about the meaning of the oath at all.
He was just looking for an excuse to make himself look like he hadn’t done anything wrong.
He didn’t really want to live a good life with his wife; he just wanted to continue controlling her and intimidating her.
His “sharing the good and the bad” is not love, but revenge and control.
What lesson does this teach us?
This story teaches us several important things:
- Saying nice things does not mean you are doing good.
No matter how eloquent someone is, if their actions hurt others, they are not trustworthy. - True “sharing the good and the bad” means supporting each other, not hurting each other.
Husbands and wives should comfort each other when they are sad and laugh together when they are happy.
It’s not about one person being happy while the other is suffering. - Laws and rules cannot be taken at face value.
The tailor thought that as long as he didn’t “hit” his wife, he was keeping his promise, but he hurt her in other ways, which was still wrong.
True change comes from the heart, not from clever words.
- The weak need protection, especially when they are hurt by those close to them.
The wife did not fight back or run away, but she was wronged.
It was the neighbors and the authorities who stood up for her and helped her get justice.
Summary
This story is short but powerful.
It reminds us:
Be sincere in life; don’t try to be clever.
Love is not about control; it’s about respect.
Every word you speak should align with your actions.
The tailor thought he was clever, but no one believed him.
True happiness isn’t achieved through empty words; it’s earned through sincerity.
