This idiom is from the story about a monk named Fadeng. According to a Ming-Dynasty document, there lived a Chan master called Fadeng in Qingliang Temple of Jinling (present-day Qingliang Temple in Qingliang Mountain Park in Nanjing). He was a bold and uninhibited person by nature and would not pay much attention to the stringent Buddhist code. As such, all monks in the temple looked down on him, expect for the abbot, who set great store by him.

Once, during a preaching lecture, the abbot asked all the monks in the temple: "who can take off the gold bell tied on the tiger's neck?" Thinking it over and over, no body came up with an answer. At that time, Fadeng happened to pass by, and the abbot asked him the same question.

Without hesitation, Fadeng answered: "let him who tied the bell on the tiger take it off." On hearing this, the abbot knew that Fadeng could understand the Buddhist doctrine and praised him in front of all others. Later, Fedeng's answer "let him who tied the bell on the tiger take it off" was handed down as an idiom meaning "whoever started the trouble should end it".