In ancient times, a man named Zhang San painstakingly saved three hundred silver taels and was overjoyed.
But now that he had the silver, he couldn't help worrying: where should he put it? If a thief stole it, the loss would be huge. He thought, he must find a safe and reliable place to hide the silver.
At first, he hid the silver in a chest secured with two locks. But then he thought, "What if a thief knows the silver is in the chest and steals the whole thing?"
That evening, he took the silver out of the chest, determined to find a more secure hiding place for it.
After much thought, he finally devised a brilliant plan. Under the cover of night, he dug a pit at the base of the wall behind his house and quietly buried the silver there.
After burying it, he still felt uneasy, worrying that others might discover his secret of burying the silver. So, he cleverly wrote on a piece of paper, "There are no three hundred taels of silver buried here," and pasted the paper on the wall beside the pit.
Zhang San's neighbor Wang Er lived next door. Wang Er clearly saw Zhang San burying the silver. After Zhang San returned to his room to sleep, Wang Er quietly crept behind Zhang San's house, dug up the soil, and stole the silver. Fearing suspicion, he also left a note at the burial spot: "Your neighbor Er did not steal the silver."
Later, the idiom "No Three Hundred Taels of Silver Buried Here" came to describe someone who tries to hide something but ends up exposing it instead.
Source: *Chinese Folktales*
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "此地无银三百两" came to describe how someone who tries to hide something but ends up exposing it instead.