西方经典哲理故事(2)
后来有一天，农夫的父亲问他：最近你怎么忽然间得到那么多黄金的钱？那些钱是从哪里来的？农夫就把他遇到的事情告诉他的父亲。他的父亲听了以后，心想：我要找一天跟着我的儿子出门，看看到底是谁吃他的东西，然后把钱放在他的瓶子里面。
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.
有一天农夫出去做买卖时，他的父亲就默默跟着他。当农夫在城门附近睡觉的时候，他的父亲看到一条蛇爬到他的瓶子那边吃他的东西，吃完以后，就吐出一块黄金的钱到瓶里面，算是付钱给他这样子，然后蛇就爬走了。农夫的父亲想：「如果我把这条蛇杀掉，就可以得到它全部黄金的钱了９于是他找了一块石头，把那条蛇割成两段。
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.
那时候，那条蛇的头部和身体已经爬进它的窝里面，只剩下尾巴露在外面。农夫的父亲认为蛇窝里面有很多宝藏，就叫农夫伸手去拿。没想到当农夫把手伸进去时，却被蛇咬死了！被割成两段的蛇竟然还可以咬人啊！这种情形我知道，我小的时候也曾经被这样咬过。那时候我看到一只蜈蚣被人家打扁了，只剩下头还没扁，我认为它已经死了。为了要确定看看它是不是真的死了，我就用脚去拨看看，结果被咬了一口，哭了三天（大家笑），太笨了！你们要记得，看到蜈蚣不应该玩，即使它已经死了，也不要跟它玩，因为有时候它只是装死而已，还没有真的死。
