吹 牛
甲曰：“家下有鼓一面，每击之，声闻百里。”乙曰：“家下有牛一只，江南吃水，头直靠江北。”甲摇头曰：“那有此牛？”乙曰：“不是这一只牛，怎谩得这一面鼓。”
《笑府》
[明]冯梦龙 编
Talking big
A man said:
“In our village there’s a drum so big that when it is beaten, its booming sound can be heard 100 li away.”
Another man cut in with:
“In our village there’s an ox which has its head in Jiangbei when it is drinking water in Jiangnan.”
The first man shook his head and said:
“There couldn’t be an ox as big as that. ”
At that the second man retorted:
“If there’s no ox as big as that, how on earth can they get a skin big enough to cover that great drum of yours?”
Feng Menglong: xiao fu (Treasure House of Funny Stories)
Translated by Lu Yunzhong