"This is bizarre," Yin Anyan asked his family, "Who on earth（究竟） killed my donkey?"

"What?"

"Yeah, somebody killed my donkey and left the skin in the yard." They went out to look.

"Looks like somebody ate the meat and left the hide." They were all pretty（相当地） angry. It had been a nice donkey.

A year or two after this strange event, somebody accosted¹（勾引，引诱） Yin on the street and said, "Your time is up. The soul-catchers will collect you tomorrow." And then the person disappeared in thin air.

Yin was covered with goose bumps（鸡皮疙瘩） . He went straight to Cumen Temple,where he knew some of the monks², and sat down in the chapel³. He didn't go home that night, but spent his time kowtowing（磕头） , telling the Buddha⁴ Amitabha's name, and reciting sutras（佛经） .

Sure enough, the next morning he saw a dozen demons⁶ coming with spears and halberds（戟） and swords to fetch him. They stood outside the temple and roared, "Get out here as quick as you can!" Yin ignored them, and kept reciting his sutra.

"I told you we should have got him yesterday. Now he's in there reciting a sutra and there's not a thing we can do." Yin's hair stood on end（竖立，直立） when he heard that. He buried his nose in the sutra. The demons went into a huddle⁷（拥挤，混乱） . Then they left to fetch other souls, but they stationed one demon⁵ at the door to catch Yin if he stepped outside.

Soon that sentry⁸（哨兵，岗哨） said, "Look, why don't you come along peacefully without any fuss（大惊小怪） ? It'll be easier for us all around. We don't have anything against you personally. We're just doing our job.

"The problem is that the donkey you murdered has filed a suit against you, so we have to take you in. Sorry, man, but that's the way it has to be."

"You can ask my family!" Yin said. "I didn't kill that donkey at all! Somebody else did, and left the skin in my yard. I'm innocent!"

"Tell it to the judge."

"Look, let's do it this way. I'll recite sutras and hold ceremonies for the soul of my old donkey, but I can't do that if I'm dead, can I? Could you go ask the donkey if that's okay?"

"All right, I'll go see what I can do. But if the donkey doesn't buy that, we'll be back for you tomorrow, with a warrant, so it won't do you any good to hide in here. If we don't come for you tomorrow, that means it's a deal." The demon disappeared in a puff⁹（一阵风） of smoke.

The next day Yin was on pins and needles（如坐针毡，坐立不安） all day, but the demons didn't show up. Yin recited sutras for the dead donkey's soul, and performed ceremonies to release it from its suffering.

But even better than that, Yin learned an important lesson. He learned that all living creatures love their lives. From then on, he and his entire family never ate another bite of meat.