Once upon a time, there was a young man called Ma Liang.

He was poor and

kind and liked drawing so much that he drew pictures everywhere. One night, he
dreamed that an old man gave him a magic paintbrush and asked him to use it
to help poor people. When he woke up, he found the magic paintbrush on his
desk.
From that day on, he used the paintbrush whenever poor people needed help.
When he saw that people had no water to use in the fields, he drew a river and
the river came to life. People could bring water from the river to the field to help
their crops grow. When he saw the hard working farmers struggling to feed their
families, he drew more food for them to eat. Soon many people knew about the
magic paintbrush and were very grateful to Ma Liang. But in the village, there
lived a rich man who was mean and decided to steal the paint brush from the
young man so that he could use it to become even richer. So he sent his servants
to Ma Liang's home to steal the magic paintbrush.
Once he had the paintbrush, he felt very happy and he invited his friends to come to

his home so that he could show them his new possession. He drew a lot of pictures,

but none of them would come to life for him. He was very angry that the paintbrush

would not work for him so he sent for Ma Liang.

He said to the young man "If you draw some pictures for me and bring them to life, I

will set you free." Ma Liang did not want to help such a bad man, but he had an idea.

He said to the bad man, "What would you like me to draw?"

The rich man said, "I want a golden mountain. I will go there to gather gold." But the

young man drew a sea first. The rich man was angry and said," Why did you draw a

sea? I want a golden mountain. Draw it quickly!"

So the young man drew a golden mountain which was far away from
the sea. The rich man said, "Draw a big ship quickly. I want to go
there to gather gold." The young man smiled quietly and drew a big
ship. The rich man jumped into the ship and set off to find the gold
but when the ship sailed to the middle of the sea, Ma Liang drew a
large wave which destroyed the ship and the rich man was never
seen in the village again.
After that, the young man lived with his family happily and used the
magic paintbrush to help the poor people as the the old man had
asked him to do and the magic paintbrush was known and loved by
everyone.