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以讹传讹 (yǐ é chuan é)

Incorrectly relay an erroneous message ( so that the truth becomes increasingly distorted)

Once a hunter in the State of Chu was selling some pheasants he had caught. A man passed by and was surprised to see the beautiful birds.

“What birds are these?” he asked.

“Phoenixes,” the hunter answered, trying to cheat him.

“Gosh!” the man thought, “I’ve only heard of such birds but never saw one before.” He then asked the hunter,

“Can I buy one?”

“Sure, so long you can afford it.”

The man was rich. He offered one thousand ounces of gold. The hunter saw his chance of making more money, so he said, “No way, unless you pay me two thousand ounces.”

The rich man agreed to the price and the deal was made. After leaving the spot, he thought to himself: “The phoenix is the rarest bird on earth. And it’s a luck bird. The king must be very pleased if I present it to him. And then, ha, ha…”

He decided to send it to the palace the next day.

But alas! When he woke up the next morning, he found the bird dead!

The news spread to the capital. Everyone there believed the dead bird was a phoenix and said he was right to have decided to present it to the king.

When the king learned about this, he summoned the rich man to the palace and gave him a lot of gold and silk as a reward for his loyalty. The man was overjoyed because be got much more than what he had paid for that lucky bird.

Another story goes: Once an old man had a well sunk in his courtyard. With a well near at hand, he did not have to assign one of his sons to fetch water for the family any more. He was very happy with the well and one day, when discussing it with his sons, he said, “We seem to have one more hand in the family since we dug the well.” And everybody agreed.

What the old man said was overheard by a neighbour who told the story to his relatives. And they spread it to others and the story was spread far and wide. Of course there were more and more versions of it. In one version, it became a glaring absurdity—according to this version, when the old man was digging the wellin his courtyard, he dug out a strong man who was now helping him with all the farm work!

(Source: english.cri.cn)