The Beggar and the Rich Man

By Wang Peijun

A beggar was crouching on the street corner near a hotel,shivering in the chilly winds.

A rich man staggered past him,half-drunk, burping with the stench of alcohol. The beggar stretched out his hand saying: “Brother, please do me a favor.” The rich man looked at the beggar, more than ten years older than himself, and suddenly had the idea of playing a prank on him. Squinting, the rich man said,“What did you call me? You called me brother?” He took out a thousand bucks while talking, “Let’s make a deal: don’t call me brother, call me‘daddy.’ One time, one hundred bucks.”

Without hesitation, the beggar called “daddy” loudly ten times.

The rich man had to give all the money to the beggar but ended up feeling remorseful with little delight.

The beggar, reading the rich man’s mind, said, “You are regretting what you have done, aren’t you?”Then, he said magnanimously: “You can have your money back the same way you gave it to me.”

Surprised, the rich man asked,“Really?”

The beggar said, “Yeah, but since you’re a rich guy, I’m just a beggar,we need to differentiate our social statuses.”

The rich man asked how and the beggar explained: “You’re a distinguished man and it was worth one hundred bucks for me to call you‘daddy.’ I’m penniless and common,so it will just be worth fifty if you are to call me ‘daddy.’” The rich man was rejoiced and said, “That’s it.” He regretted what he said instantly, but after a few minutes’ calculating in mind, he agreed to call the beggar ten times.

Then the rich man called out“daddy” and the beggar echoed proudly. After ten times the beggar told him to stop, gave him 500 bucks and said, “We’re even now.”

The beggar strode off with 500 bucks in his pocket, leaving the rich man shivering in the cold wind.◆

(From The Life of Common People, Hunan People’s Publishing House. Translation: Sam Bowden)

寒風刺骨，乞丐在酒店的拐角處凍得發抖。

大款打著酒嗝，搖搖晃晃地從乞丐面前路過，乞丐伸出手說：“大哥，你行行好吧。”大款看著比自己大十幾歲的乞丐，突然有了惡作劇的念頭，乜斜著眼說：“你叫我什么？叫我大哥？”邊說邊掏出1000塊錢：“這樣吧，你別叫我大哥了，叫我一聲爹，我給你100塊錢。”

乞丐二話不說，一口氣叫了十聲爹。

大款把錢給了乞丐，可一點快感也沒感覺到，就有些后悔。

乞丐看透了大款的心思，說：“后悔了吧？”接著大度地說：“用同樣的方法，你可以把錢再拿回去。”

大款沒有想到，忙問：“真的？”

乞丐說：“真的，不過，你是大款，我是乞丐，咱們得分出身份。”

大款問怎么分，乞丐說：“你有錢是貴人，喊你一聲值100元；我沒錢，是賤人，喊我一聲只值50元。”大款聽了很高興，說：“就應該這樣分。”話出口，才覺得上了當，繼而一想，不就是多喊十聲爹嗎？認了。

大款就喊，乞丐就應，當喊完第十聲時，乞丐喊停，接著遞過500塊錢說：“咱們扯平了。”

乞丐拿著500塊錢走了，留下大款在寒風里發抖。