Minister Pang Gong accepted the appointment of the king of the state of Wei and accompanied the prince to Han Dan to be the hostage. Before departure, he said to the king, "If someone told you that there was a tiger at the market, would Your Majesty believe it?" The king said, "No, I would not." Then Pang Gong asked again, "What if a second person told your Majesty the same thing?" The king said no again. Pang Gong asked once more, "What if a third person told Your Majesty this again?" The king said, "Since everybody said so, it seemed it was true." Pang Gong said, "There wasn't any tiger at the market at all. But just because three people said so, it became quite believable. It shows how formidable a gossip is. Han Dan is much farther away from here than the market is and there would be much more than three people who would speak ill of me. I beg Your Majesty to consider carefully before you believe what they might say about me." When Pang Gong returned from Han Dan, the king of the state of Wei did not want to see him any more.
大臣龐恭接受了魏王的任命陪太子到趙國都城邯鄲去做人質(zhì)。 臨行前， 他對魏王說：“如果有人對您說，集市上有只老虎，您相信嗎?”魏王說：“不相信。” 龐恭又問：“如果第二個人也這樣說呢?”魏王依然表示不信。 龐恭再問：“如果第三個人還是這樣說呢?”魏王說：“大家都這么說，看來這事是真的了。” 龐恭說：“集市上原本沒有老虎，然而僅僅因為三個人說有，就容易使人相信，可見流言的厲害。邯鄲離魏國比這里到集市要遠得多，而議論我的人卻遠遠不止三個，對于有關(guān)我的流言，請大王明察。”當(dāng)龐恭從邯鄲返回時，魏王已經(jīng)不想再見他了。