張祖平

A man was looking for things of old times. One day he came to a village and found a blue bowl which looked very old. The bowl was on the ground and a cat was drinking milk from it. A farmer， the owner of the cat， was lying beside the bowl.

In order not to draw the farmers attention to the value1 of the bowl， the man said to him in a soft voice， “What a nice cat！Will you sell it to me？”

“How much would you give me for it？” the farmer opened his eyes and asked.

“Twenty dollars. Would it be enough？”

A few minutes later， the farmer agreed. After he paid the farmer， the man said， “My cat will certainly feel thirsty. May I take the bowl so that the cat can have milk？”

But the farmer said， “Im sorry I cant give it to you. Thanks to the bowl， I have already sold twenty cats.”

一個男人正在尋找古董。一天他來到一個村莊，發(fā)現(xiàn)一只藍(lán)色的碗，看起來很古老。碗放在地上，一只貓正在喝碗里的牛奶。貓的主人是一個農(nóng)夫，他正躺在碗的旁邊。

為了不引起農(nóng)夫?qū)@只碗的價值的注意，男人輕聲對農(nóng)夫說：“多么漂亮的一只貓?。≠u給我，好嗎？”

“你出價多少？”農(nóng)夫睜開眼睛問道。

“二十美元，夠嗎？”

幾分鐘后，農(nóng)夫答應(yīng)了。男人付錢給農(nóng)夫后，他說：“我的貓肯定會口渴。我能帶走這只碗嗎？那樣我的貓就可以喝牛奶了。”

但是農(nóng)夫卻說：“對不起，我不能把碗給你。幸虧有了這只碗，我已經(jīng)賣出了20只貓?！眅ndprint