- When trying to scare a monkey, remember that it might not care how many chickens you kill.
In China, there’s a curious saying that goes, “Kill the chicken to scare the monkey.” Basically, it means that you have to make an example out of something smaller to intimidate a bigger foe.
We suppose that’s what Mr. Gu tried to do when he went after his neighbor’s chickens. Only, he managed to scare neither figurative nor literal monkeys.
If he had, though, it would’ve been a lot of monkeys. Mr. Gu is responsible for the deaths of more than 1,100 of his neighbor’s chickens.
Yet, this monkey fought back. The neighbor, Mr. Zhong, sued Mr. Gu and took him to court.
The courts sided squarely with Mr. Zhong. Gu has been sentenced to prison for the significant damages he caused to his neighbor.
And it was all because of a bunch of trees.
It Began with Trees
The bizarre saga begins in April 2022. At that time, Mr. Gu cut down some trees on the border of his and his neighbor’s property, according to China Daily.
However, that didn’t go down well with Zhong. You see, the ownership of the trees is a bit of a blurry subject.
According to Chinese media, the trees were the property of Mr. Zhong. However, other reports have stated that the trees did, in fact, belong to Gu.
Whatever the truth may be, the Zhong household strongly believed they were entitled to the trees. So, Zhong’s wife took unto herself to have the trees towed off Gu’s property and into theirs.
Now, we have to say that we understand why that would make Mr. Gu a bit mad. From his perspective, his a**hole neighbors had just stolen what was rightfully his.
But instead of trying to resolve the row through legal avenues, Gu decided to dole out some DIY justice. Some time later, in the dead of night, Gu snuck into the Zhong family’s property.
It’s not exactly certain what he was there to do. The only fact we do know is that Mr. Zhong’s herd of chickens didn’t like Gu’s high-powered flashlight one bit.
The light drove the chickens into a mad panic. Like headless chickens, the entire herd crowded into one corner away from Mr. Gu.
As a result of the crush, around 500 of the chickens got trampled to death.
Let’s Do This Again
After he found out what had happened, it was Mr. Zhong’s turn to be mighty pissed. But unlike his neighbor, he went to the police.
Chinese police officers apprehended Gu and after a brief investigation, ordered him to pay 3,000 yuan ($436) for the damages.
Gu, however, wasn’t happy about having to pay. Maybe he felt the investigation wasn’t carried out properly — or he was just salty about having to hand money over to the neighbor he hated.
Well, at least he learned his lesson.
Just kidding, no he didn’t. Out for revenge, Gu went sneaking on his neighbor’s property on another night.
We want to say the result was the same, but it wasn’t. This time it was worse.
Whether intentionally or not, Gu managed to scare Zhong’s chickens for a second time. Despite the herd having 500 chickens fewer, the stampede was even deadlier than the one before.
This time, an estimated 640 chickens died.
Remorseful, in the End
At this point, Zhong had had enough. He took Gu to the court properly and accused him of intentionally killing his chickens.
The court in Hengyang province agreed with Zhong. The judges ruled that Gu had intentionally caused property loss to Zhong and that the loss equaled a “large amount.”
Indeed it did. The authorities estimate that the 1,100 dead chickens set Mr. Zhong back 13,480 yuan — nearly $2,000.
However, during the hearings, the court noted that Mr. Gu showed “remorse” for his behavior. Whether he was remorseful for doing what he did or for getting caught, we can’t know.
Nonetheless, the judge took Gu’s remorse into account when doling out justice. He sentenced Gu only to six months in prison, plus a year on probation.
Our of curiosity, we tried to find out the estimated cost of the trees that caused the row. We couldn’t find that out, but we figure it was less than the chickens.
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