King Xuan enjoyed archery and loved to be praised as a powerful archer, though he could only draw a bow weighing thirty jin. Whenever he showed his bow to his attendants, they would pretend to struggle to draw it, bending it only halfway.
"This must weigh at least ninety jin!" they would all exclaim. "Only Your Majesty could wield such a bow." The king was always pleased to hear this.
Though he used only a thirty-jin bow, he believed until his dying day that it weighed ninety. In reality, it was thirty jin; the ninety was merely in name. For the sake of empty flattery, he sacrificed the truth.