The Hidden Deer

"There was once a lumberjack from Cheng who found a deer in a field, which he killed and subsequently buried with leaves and branches to prevent others from discovering the piece. But before long, the lumberjack forgot where he had hidden the animal and came to believe that the whole thing had actually been a dream.

Soon after, he would begin to tell his supposed dream, to which one of those who heard him reacted trying to find the deer. After finding him, he took him home and told his wife about the situation, which indicated that he might have dreamed of the conversation with the lumberjack, even though having found the animal the dream would be real. To this, her husband replied that regardless of whether the dream was his or the lumberjack, there was no need to know.

But that same night the lumberjack who hunted the animal dreamed (this time for real) the place where he had hidden the corpse and with the person who had found it. In the morning he went to the discoverer's house of the animal's body, after which the two men argued about who the piece belonged to. This discussion would be tried to settle with the help of a judge, who retorted that on the one hand the lumberjack had killed a deer in what he believed in a dream and subsequently considered his second dream to be a truth, while the other found said deer although his wife considered that it was he who dreamed of finding it based on the story of the former.

The conclusion was that no one had actually killed the animal, and it was dictated that the case be resolved by the distribution of the animal between the two men. Later, this story would reach the king of Cheng, who would eventually wonder if it really would not be the judge who had dreamed of having divided the deer."

The tale of "The Hidden Deer" is a Chinese folk tale that tells us a story based on the differentiation between dream and reality and how difficult it can sometimes be to realize it. It is one of the short stories for adults that tells us about the possibility that we may live in various planes of existence.

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