This very silly story describes the idiom 此地无银三百两, which literally means, “There isn’t 300 tales of silver buried here.” (Spoiler alert, there is definitely 300 taels of silver buried there.) You would use this phrase the same way you would use “Me thinks thou doth protest too much,” to describe when someone tries so hard to hide or deny something that they basically point a giant arrow at it.
One thing I should point out: By now, you’ll be very familiar with the character 两, meaning “two”. But in this instance, 两 does not mean “two”, it means a “tael”, which is a old-timey measurement for money, particularly silver. In the Qing Dynasty, silver was measured by weight, and a tael was the equivalent of 37–38 grams. This measurement is not used anymore, but you’ll see it a lot in novels or dramas set in the 19th century and earlier.
Key vocab
攒 – zǎn – to save up; to accumulate
埋 – mái – to bury
不放心 – bù fàng xīn – to feel uneasy; to worry
万一 – wàn yī – in case; what if
路过 – lù guò – to pass by (on the road)
二话不说 – èr huà bù shuō – without saying a word; without hesitation
怀疑 – huái yí – to suspect; to doubt
隐瞒 – yǐn mán – to conceal; to hide (the truth)
暴露 – bào lù – to expose; to reveal
此地无银三百两
从前，有一个人叫张三。他辛辛苦苦攒了三百两银子，高兴得不得了。可是问题来了——银子放在哪里才安全呢？
他想来想去，最后决定把银子埋在自己家的后院里。他挖了一个坑，把银子放进去，然后填上土。
可是埋好以后，他还是不放心。他心想：万一有人路过，看见这块土是新的，猜到下面埋着东西，那怎么办？
于是他想出了一个”好办法”。他找来一块木板，在上面写了七个大字：
“此地无银三百两”
然后把木板插在土上，这才安心地回家睡觉去了。
那天晚上，隔壁的邻居王二正好路过。他看见木板，看见上面的字，愣了一下，然后忍不住笑了起来。
他二话不说，拿起铁锹，把银子全部挖了出来，带回了自己家。
可是王二挖完以后，也开始担心：万一张三发现银子不见了，第一个怀疑的就是我，那怎么办？
于是，王二也想出了一个”好办法”。他也找来一块木板，在上面写道：
“隔壁王二不曾偷”
写完以后，他把木板插在坑边，心满意足地回家了。
这个故事告诉我们：有些人想隐瞒一件事，结果因为做得太过头，反而把真相暴露了出来。