農(nóng)夫和蛇

This story is called "The Farmer and the Snake." Every day, a farmer went to the city to sell his flowers and farm produce and then went home after selling all his things. One day, he left home very early, so early that when he arrived at the city, the gate was still closed. So he lay down to take a nap, when he awoke he found that the storage bin containing his farm produce had become empty except that there was a gold coin inside. Although all the things in the bin had vanished, the gold was much more valuable so he was still very happy. He thought most probably someone had taken his things and left the payment there, and went home happily with the money.

The next day, the farmer again went out to sell his things but again arrived too early so he slept outside the city gate just like he had done the day before. And the incident repeated itself. All the produce that the farmer had brought disappeared, and there was a gold coin in the bin! At that time, gold was very valuable. One gold coin had a value many times higher than the farmer's produce.

Then one day some time later, the farmer's father asked him, "Where have you gotten so many gold coins lately? Where did the money come from?" So the farmer revealed to his father what had happened. After listening to his story, the father thought, "One day I'll follow my son as he goes out, and see who's been consuming his things and leaving the money in the bin."

So one day, when the farmer went out to do business, his father quietly followed him. While the farmer was sleeping near the city gate, his father saw a snake crawl up to his bin and eat his produce. Having finished eating, the snake once again spat a gold coin into the bin as payment to the farmer before leaving. Seeing this, the farmer's father thought, "If I kill the snake, I'll be able to seize all its gold coins!" He then picked up a stone and cut the snake into two parts.

At that time, the head and trunk of the snake were already in its den, and only the tail was outside. The father thought that there must be a big treasure in the den so he told his son to reach inside for it. But unexpectedly, when the farmer reached his hand into the den, the snake bit and killed him! Even though it had been cut into two, the snake could still bite! I understand how this could have happened because that was how I got bitten when I was small. At that time, I saw a centipede that had been beaten and squashed by someone, leaving only the head intact. I thought it was dead, and to make sure, I poked it with my foot. It bit me hard and I cried for three days. (Laughter) I was really dumb! Remember! Don't play with a centipede even if it looks dead. Sometimes it just fakes death; it's not really dead.

這個(gè)故事叫做農(nóng)夫和蛇。有一個(gè)農(nóng)夫，每天到城里去賣他自己種的花和農(nóng)產(chǎn)品，賣完以后就回家。有一天，他很早出門，來(lái)到城門時(shí)，因?yàn)檫€太早，城門還沒(méi)開，所以他就先躺在那邊睡覺(jué)。當(dāng)他醒過(guò)來(lái)時(shí)，看到他裝農(nóng)產(chǎn)品的瓶子都空空了，里面多了一塊黃金的錢。雖然瓶子里的東西不見(jiàn)了，不過(guò)那塊黃金的錢已經(jīng)很多了，所以他還是非常高興。他想大概有人拿走他的東西，然后放錢在那邊，于是就快樂(lè)地帶著錢回家了。

隔天，農(nóng)夫又出門去做買賣，同樣也是來(lái)得太早，所以他又在城門那邊睡覺(jué)。結(jié)果又發(fā)生一樣的事情，農(nóng)夫帶來(lái)的東西都不見(jiàn)了，瓶子里面又多了一塊黃金的錢!那時(shí)候黃金是很有價(jià)值，所以一塊黃金的錢比農(nóng)夫的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品還高出好幾倍的價(jià)值。

后來(lái)有一天，農(nóng)夫的父親問(wèn)他：最近你怎么忽然間得到那么多黃金的錢?那些錢是從哪里來(lái)的?農(nóng)夫就把他遇到的事情告訴他的父親。他的父親聽了以后，心想：我要找一天跟著我的兒子出門，看看到底是誰(shuí)吃他的東西，然后把錢放在他的瓶子里面。

有一天農(nóng)夫出去做買賣時(shí)，他的父親就默默跟著他。當(dāng)農(nóng)夫在城門附近睡覺(jué)的時(shí)候，他的父親看到一條蛇爬到他的瓶子那邊吃他的東西，吃完以后，就吐出一塊黃金的錢到瓶里面，算是付錢給他這樣子，然后蛇就爬走了。農(nóng)夫的父親想：「如果我把這條蛇殺掉，就可以得到它全部黃金的錢了!」于是他找了一塊石頭，把那條蛇割成兩段。

那時(shí)候，那條蛇的頭部和身體已經(jīng)爬進(jìn)它的窩里面，只剩下尾巴露在外面。農(nóng)夫的父親認(rèn)為蛇窩里面有很多寶藏，就叫農(nóng)夫伸手去拿。沒(méi)想到當(dāng)農(nóng)夫把手伸進(jìn)去時(shí)，卻被蛇咬死了!被割成兩段的蛇竟然還可以咬人啊!這種情形我知道，我小的時(shí)候也曾經(jīng)被這樣咬過(guò)。那時(shí)候我看到一只蜈蚣被人家打扁了，只剩下頭還沒(méi)扁，我認(rèn)為它已經(jīng)死了。為了要確定看看它是不是真的死了，我就用腳去撥看看，結(jié)果被咬了一口，哭了三天(大家笑)，太笨了!你們要記得，看到蜈蚣不應(yīng)該玩，即使它已經(jīng)死了，也不要跟它玩，因?yàn)橛袝r(shí)候它只是裝死而已，還沒(méi)有真的死。