Tell it to walk, and it takes two steps. Ask it to "kneel down", and it falls to its knees.

The bamboo puppet is no ordinary toy, says the peddler. It can follow instructions all by itself, he claims.

It even turns a somersault and dances at the man's requests. But it remains still when curious onlookers try to tell it what to do.

A Beijing Morning Post reporter discovered the trick behind the magic last Saturday at a metro exit at Dongzhimen.

A man in a white T-shirt held a newspaper and sat at the other end of the small "stage", a cloth spread over the ground.

But he did not move the paper at all for 20 minutes - apparently, he was not reading.

With every movement of the puppet as it followed the old peddler's instructions, the man holding the newspaper moved his hands ever so slightly. He was the real puppet master.

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