便是假的 Say It Wrong And You Are False
行者道：「你曉得，快說來我聽。如若說得合著我，便是真的；若說差了一些兒，便是假的，我定拿去見大王處治。」行者道：「你晓得，快说来我听。如若说得合着我，便是真的；若说差了一些儿，便是假的，我定拿去见大王处治。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said, "If you know, say it out quickly and let me hear.
曉得 keeps 得 as dé, the attainment reading after a verb of knowing. The tone has hardened from question to instruction.
If what you say tallies with mine, you are genuine;
說得 has 得 unstressed as de, hanging the condition on the verb, and 合著 takes 著 as zhe — the only sealed instance of that compound reads the same way. The standard being offered is agreement with an answer Pilgrim does not have.
and if you are out by the smallest thing, you are false, and I shall take you straight to the king to be dealt with."
差 here is chà, wrong or off — and eight units further on the same character will be chāi, to dispatch, in a completely different sense. 處治 is to deal with in the punitive sense, what a magistrate does to somebody brought before him.
The test is unfalsifiable and everybody accepts it. Tell me what I already know, and if you agree with me you are honest — from a man who knows nothing at all.
It works because it is exactly the shape a real loyalty test takes. The person being checked cannot see the answer sheet and must assume there is one.
And the threat at the end is administrative rather than physical. Not I shall kill you but I shall take you to be dealt with, which in an organisation with tallies and a roll call is the more frightening sentence.