Summary
Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to be the leader of a village. He wanted to see the procession of the Kamo Festival (Aoi Matsuri). On festival days, the roads are crowded with spectators, and he thought it would surely be difficult for an elderly man like him to see the procession. After a while, he suddenly had a clever idea. He left his house before dawn and placed a sign by the roadside that read: "This is a place for an elderly man to watch; entry is prohibited."
The old man then returned home and waited for the procession to pass. After a while, as dawn broke, people began to gather in front of the sign. "Look, there's a sign here. It must have been put up by an important person. 'This is a place for an elderly man to watch, ...' By the way, who is that elderly man?" said one man.
"It could be the previous emperor, Emperor Yozei," another replied.
"That makes sense. He must have had his subjects put it up just so he could watch the procession," his companion answered.
The people there nodded in agreement. "Listen! No one is allowed to disturb the viewing of this distinguished person!" said another.
As the people left, a space opened up around the sign. Soon after, a nicely dressed old man appeared in front of it and began to use a fan. The onlookers believed that this man was a subject of Emperor Yozei and that the emperor himself would soon appear.
An elegant procession passed slowly by, but the emperor did not show himself. "That must have been an ordinary old man. We were completely deceived by the sign," the people said.
The rumor even reached Emperor Yozei, leading him to order his subjects to bring the old man to the court. "Why did you set up a sign saying, 'This is a place for the previous emperor to watch'?" the emperor asked the old man.
The old man replied modestly, "I am over eighty years old now. I thought it would be impossible for me to watch the festival at this age, but recently, my grandchild is participating in the procession as an attendant, and I wanted to see my grandchild shine. However, I was worried about getting crushed in the throng of people along the road. So, I set up the sign to avoid the crowd. I never wrote, 'This is a place for the previous emperor to watch.' I simply wrote, 'This is a place for an elderly man to watch.'"
The emperor smiled and said, "If you had written your name and whereabouts on the sign, it would have been taken down immediately. Quite clever of you."
In the end, the old man returned home without any reprimand.
Source: "Konjaku Monogatari" (Tales of Times Now Past)
