Here’s a hypothetical that you can discuss with your neighbors during the next BBQ or dinner party: One of your neighbors had fallen into a pit full of human excrement and the rest of you have to rescue them. Who goes in? What would you do?

This crappy situation played out in a central China province after a pig running into the cesspool of a farm resulted in two people being hospitalized.

The incident occurred on a farm run by a husband and wife, but since the husband is paralyzed, the wife handles most of the work. One day, the woman was selling a pig. When she went to get the pig from its pen it escaped and ran off. During its escape it tumbled into the 2 meter deep hole of human waste.

The woman immediately sprang into action. Clutching a rope she climbed into the dank hole to retrieve the pig. However, upon entering the cesspool a thick cloud of methane produced by the piles of feces caused her to lose consciousness and sent her tumbling to the bottom.

The husband, who was watching, called for help being unable to move himself. A group of 10 neighbors answered the call, but were understandably hesitant to jump into the sewage. After a pregnant pause local resident, Hui Chen solemnly uttered, “I’ll do it” and sprang to action.

Mr. Chen heroically climbed down the ladder into the pool, picked up the unconscious woman, handed her off to the other neighbors, and promptly fainted tumbling to the bottom of the cesspool.

Realizing that springing into action might not be the best choice the remaining neighbors nimbly slipped into the hole, attached a rope to Mr. Chen’s unconscious body and got the hell out of there before they fainted. Safely out of the hole, the neighbors worked together and pulled Mr. Chen to safety.

Both people were taken to a nearby hospital. The woman regained consciousness and made a full recovery. Mr. Chen, however, was suffering from a fever caused by pneumonia from breathing in copious amounts of foreign matter. He regained consciousness but not fully. There were no reports on the fate of the pig.

Confucius says that “Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.” Mr. Chen admirably displayed a great deal of compassion and courage with his actions but fell short on the wisdom department. Sometimes we need to rely on neighbors to fill in for our shortcomings.

Source: Searchina (Japanese)