"The Great Abbot Ryogaku, the elder brother of Kinyo no Nii, has the
reputation of being a rather...ill-tempered man.
A large thorn tree grew near his monastery and the people accordingly referred to him as Great Abbot Thorn.
He had the tree cut down in order to get rid of that name.
But as the roots were still there, they called him Great Abbot Stump.
This made him even angrier than before and so he had the stump dug up and thrown away.
This left a large hole which filled with rain.
So they called him Great Abbot Pond-in-the-Hole.
This is section 45 of
Tsure-zure-gusa ("Essays in Idleness") by
Yoshida Kenko