Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #09 Covering One’s Ears to Steal a Bell (掩耳盗铃)

A man deceives himself by burying his head in the sand.

This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.

Story

Once upon a time, a man saw a doorbell hanging from someone’s door and wanted to steal it. But he knew that if he were to steal the bell, it would start ringing the moment his hand touched it. If he were discovered, he wouldn’t get the bell, and he himself might also get caught.

He thought this over and said to himself: “Why would there be trouble when a bell rings? This is because our ears can hear it. If I cover my ears, I won’t be able to hear it. This way I won’t be caught.”

He first covered his own ears and then tried to steal the bell. Despite his plan, he was still discovered and caught red-handed.

Meaning

It is impossible to cover up something obvious. One can’t deceive himself by burying his head in the sand.

Examples in Software Development

A few years ago, I started a contracting role in a large IT division. The team was quite impressed with my automation work on the first day. The test lead M in our department noticed that too, he told me that the CIO recently said in a town-hall meeting: “Our main app team, under the chief agile coach’s leadership, runs 980 automated End-to-End tests every night.” I said: “It must be a lie”.