The Clever Ghost and the Handful of Beans
A young merchant's wife passed away. On her deathbed, he promised never to remarry. However, after several lonely years, he fell in love with another woman and became engaged.
On the night of the engagement, the ghost of his deceased wife appeared. Every night thereafter, she returned to torment him, reciting verbatim every word he had spoken to his fiancée that day. Exhausted and sleep-deprived, the merchant sought the counsel of an elderly Zen master.
"This is an extraordinarily clever ghost," the master remarked. "She knows everything you think and do. Next time she appears, tell her: 'Since you know everything, tell me exactly how many beans I hold in my closed fist behind my back.' If she answers correctly, you will remain single forever."
That night, when the ghostly apparition materialized, the merchant held a handful of dry beans behind his back and asked the question.
The ghost stood frozen in complete silence. Because the merchant himself did not know the exact number of beans in his hand, the ghost—who was merely a projection of his own guilty subconscious mind—could not know either. In that instant, the phantom dissolved into thin air and never returned!