During the first year of Ming Guo, in the county of Wu-wei, in Anhui Province, there lived a barber who loved to eat frogs. He would buy them to prepare dishes. The number of frogs which were slaughtered by him was countless.
One night, he suddenly woke up and saw that his bed, straw mat, blankets, collars and sleeves seemed to be covered with frogs. So he got up made a fire at his stove and threw his mat, blanket and clothings into a pot of water to cook. After the water had boiled, he went back to bed. Again he found that it was all covered with frogs. And so it went on throughout the night and he did not have a good rest at all.
The next day he told his neighbour what had happened the previous night. While they were still discussing the matter, he suddenly shouted excitedly, "The frogs are again on my body." But those around him did not see anything. After some time, he again complained, "There are frogs in my hair and in my eye brows." Even after he had shaved off all the hair on his body, he still felt that they were everywhere.
Everyday he ordered his son-in-law to hit his body with a rod to get rid of the imaginary frogs. He also pounded his clothings in a mortar. After undergoing such torture for six years, he finally died.
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