Lan Zhan (蓝湛)

On a faraway shore there was a man who loved the seagulls. He would go early in the morning every day to play with them, and the seagulls would come in flocks of hundreds. His father knew of this and said: since you go every day, the seagulls must like you very much. Why don't you catch a couple and bring them home for us to play with too. The next day the man went to the shore as usual, but now his heart only held the desire of capturing a seagull, and on that day not one of the seagulls would land on the beach. Thus, a person ought to forget all bad intentions or tricks that they hold in their heart.