此地无银三百两 — “Here no silver three hundred taels”

Once upon a time, there was a man named Zhang San, who often thought himself very clever. He had saved three hundred taels of silver, and although he was delighted, he was also troubled, fearing that such a large sum would be stolen and he didn't know where to store it safely. Carrying it with him was inconvenient and might attract thieves; putting it in a drawer seemed improper and also easily stolen. He felt nowhere was safe.

Holding the silver, he pondered for a long time, turning over various ideas until he finally came up with what he thought was the best method. Under the cover of darkness, Zhang San dug a pit behind his house, near the wall, and quietly buried the silver inside. After burying it, he was still uneasy, afraid that others might suspect silver was buried there. He thought again and finally came up with another idea. He went back into the house, wrote "wrote No 300 taels of silver buried here" in large characters on a piece of white paper, and then went out and posted it on the wall near the pit. Feeling that this was very safe, he returned to his house to sleep.

Zhang San's nervous behavior throughout the day had already been noticed by his neighbor, Wang Er, who also heard the sound of digging outside his house that night and found it very strange. Just as Zhang San went back to sleep, Wang Er went to the back of the house. By the moonlight, he saw the paper posted on the corner of the wall, with the seven large characters "No 300 taels of silver buried here." Wang Er understood everything. He quietly dug out the silver, then filled the pit back in.

Wang Er returned to his own home, overjoyed at the sight of the gleaming silver, but then he also became afraid. He thought, "If Zhang San discovers the silver is gone tomorrow and suspects me, what should I do?" So, he also had a flash of inspiration, picked up a pen, and wrote "Neighbor Wang Er did not steal it" in large characters on a piece of paper. He then posted this on the wall near the pit as well.

Later, based on this folk tale, people used the phrases "No 300 taels of silver buried here" and "Neighbor Wang Er did not steal it" as an idiom, metaphorically describing someone who tries to cleverly conceal or cover up their actions, only to expose them even more obviously. Today, this idiom is often simplified to just "此地无银" (No silver here). The original meaning of "此地无银三百两" was literally "There are no three hundred taels of silver in this place." Later, people used this idiom to describe how foolish actions meant to hide something completely expose it instead.