There is a legend of the famous Flowing Water Goddess of Mercy of Song-zhu Temple in Beitun District of Taichung City. The story took place in July in the tenth year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty. Taichung was hit by a great flood. After the flood, a group of children playing in Sanfenpu Village found a piece of wood that resembled the Goddess of Mercy. So, they placed the wood at the base of a large pine tree and bowed to it respectfully.

A few days later, a cloth merchant who had sold all his goods passed by the tree on his way home. As it was very hot, he stopped to rest under the tree and fell asleep shortly after. When he woke up, he found that someone had stolen his wallet. When he saw the statue, he kneeled in front of it and prayed, “Dear Goodess of Mercy, please tell me who stole my money.”Just as he finished speaking, a gust of wind caused many pine needles to fall to the ground which formed two Chinese characters “A-niu”. The cloth merchant hurriedly went to find the village chief and asked if there was a person called A-niu.

It turned out that A-niu was a lazy person who did not like to work. The village chief got someone to fetch A-niu. When A-niu arrived, he said angrily, “You have no evidence to prove I was the thief. Don’t slander me. I did not take your money!”The village chief said, “The Goddess of Mercy said that you did. Why not go to the base of the pine tree and swear in front of the Goddess of Mercy that you did not take the money, to prove your innocence?”

A-niu thought nothing of the piece of wood and was sure that nothing would happen to him, so he agreed to go to the pine tree. When he saw the pine needles, he said, “Anyone could form these words; the cloth merchant wants to frame me.”A-niu knelt in front of the Goddess of Mercy and swore, “If I stole money from the cloth merchant, may I never stand and walk again.”After hearing A-niu’s words, everyone felt convinced that he wasn’t the thief.

But as they prepared to return to the village, they discovered that A-niu was still kneeling on the ground. The village chief asked him to stand up and go home, but A-niu could not stand and began to cry tears of remorse and said, “Dear Goddess of Mercy, I have done wrong. I admit I stole the money, which I will return. Please forgive me!”As the wooden statue arrived with the floodwaters, the villagers named the statue the “Flowing Water Goddess of Mercy.”

　　臺中市北屯區的松竹寺，有一尊很有名的流水觀音。故事發生在清道光十年的七月，臺中發生大水災，水災過後在三分埔村有一群小孩在玩耍，發現地上有一塊木頭很像觀世音菩薩像，小孩們就把這塊木頭放在大松樹下，玩起拜神的遊戲。
　　過沒幾天，一位布商剛賣完布，帶著錢準備回家，由於天氣很熱，就在大樹下乘涼休息，一不小心睡著了，醒來時發現裝錢的包包不見，突然看到樹下的木頭，便跪下來拜說:「觀世音菩薩，請幫我找小偷。」才說完，就刮起一陣強風，吹落許多的松葉，在地上堆出「阿牛」兩個字，布商便跑去問村長，有沒有阿牛這個人。
　　原來阿牛是一個好吃懶做的人，村長馬上派人把他找來，阿牛生氣地說：「你沒有證據，不要隨便亂說話，我才沒偷錢呢！」村長：「神明都說是你偷的，不然，我們去松樹下向神明發誓，來證明你的清白。」
　　阿牛心想不過是一塊破木頭，能拿我怎麼樣！阿牛看到地上針葉排成的字說：「字誰都會排，這是他存心想害我。」阿牛跪下發誓：「我阿牛要是偷布商的錢，馬上無法站起來走路。」大家聽到阿牛發毒誓，便相信他沒偷錢。
　　大家正準備回村子時，阿牛還跪在地上，村長叫他快起來，阿牛站不起來哭著說：「觀世音菩薩，我知道錯了，錢是我偷的，我會把錢還他，請原諒我吧！」因為木頭是跟著大水漂來的，村民就叫祂「流水觀音」。