「少年梅岩と栗拾(ひろ)い」のエピソードは、梅岩の人となりを端的にあらわしている。少年梅岩が十歳の頃、自分の家所有の山と他家の山との境界で栗の実を拾って帰ったところ、それを見た父に、「それは他家の栗の実だからすぐ返してくるように」とさとされ、素直に父の言葉にしたがった。「自分の物と他人の物との区別をハッキリさせる」この概念は、後に心学の教えの重要な柱の一つになる。
The incident of the young Baigan gathering chestnuts showed the straightforwardness of his character. When he took home chestnuts he had been gathering at the boarder of the mountains that belonged to their house and those of the neighbours, his father sent him back, saying they were the neighbour's chestnuts. Baigan took his father's advise to the heart. Later this Incident became the source of the concept of “distinguish clearly between which is yours and which belongs to others”, that is one of the main pillars of Shingaku.
