One day Lu Tung-pin changed into a beggar once more and came down to beg in Ch’ao-chou. He went to every house, but no one gave him a copper. This made him very angry, and, taking up his place in the door of a shop in the middle of the main street, he shouted out: ‘You with your few stinking coppers play the rich man and despise me. You will never get any money.’ The shopkeeper merely laughed at him: ‘If you have money, why do you come here to beg, you swindler?’ he said. ‘Why should I have no money? I merely don’t need any.’ ‘Where is your money, then?’ ‘I have a pot of silver buried in your shop. We can dig it up together.’ ‘And if there is nothing there?’ ‘Then you can beat me.’ Not knowing whether to believe him, the shopkeeper began to dig at the spot indicated, and about three feet below the ground he really found a pot of silver.
He at once planned to keep it and said craftily: ‘That’s my silver, I buried it here twenty years ago. You can’t pretend it’s yours.’ ‘All right, you can keep it,’ said Lu Tung-pin and went out into the street. ‘Underneath this busy crossroads there is also a buried treasure,’ he said. ‘Please dig it up.’ ‘You are mad,’ said the shopkeeper; ‘how can there be a treasure buried at the crossroads?’ ‘Don’t talk so much. Dig it up and see. If there is nothing, you can punish me,’ said Lu. The shopkeeper sent for some workmen and told them to dig up the crossroads, and sure enough, they found another jar of silver. Lu Tung-pin stroked his beard and asked with a smile: ‘Did you bury some more money twenty years ago?’ ‘Who can tell, if someone in this busy old town didn’t bury silver at the crossroads?’ said the shopkeeper. ‘It is no proof that you can change earth into silver.’
‘All right, we will go down to the river and try there,’ and Lu proceeded to the river bank with the shopkeeper, followed by a crowd of inquisitive people. He vaguely pointed at the ground and said: ‘A jar of silver is buried there. Dig it up quickly.’ Everyone was longing to know the result, and they dug so quickly that in a minute they found a large jar of silver. Dumbfounded, they stood with open mouths and shook their heads; even their eyes were riveted with surprise. Then Lu Tung-pin asked with a laugh: ‘What do you say now? Did you bury this treasure twenty years ago? Answer me, you clever tradesman,’ but the man was too ashamed to reply, and, stroking his chin, Lu continued: ‘You see that I can have money; but I do not need it. You have made a little money, which you use to put on airs and despise the poor. Don’t you think I have the right to despise you also?’ The shopkeeper blushed to the roots of his hair and tried to stutter a few words of excuse, but Lu Tung-pin suddenly vanished. Several people asserted that he was carrying two glass jars on his coat, which proved that he was the Immortal. Later a temple to Lu Tung-pin was built on the spot where the silver was found, and an inscription was erected over it: ‘He can find treasure.’