一塊大金子

鄭遠舟

Once upon a time there was a rich village. Thewealthiestofthevillagersdecidedtohideahuge lump of gold to protect it from bandits and rob-bers. So he buried it in a nearby rice field.

Manyyearslater，thevillagewasnolongerrich， and the rice field was abandoned and unused. Apoor farmer decided to plow thefield. Aftersometimeplowing，it justsohappenedthathisplowstruck the long forgotten buried treasure.

At first he thought it must be a very hard treeroot. But when he uncovered it， he saw that it wasbeautiful shining gold. Since it was daytime he wasafraid to try and take it with him. So he covered itup again and waited for nightfall.

The poor farmer returned in the middle of thenight. Again he uncovered the golden treasure. Hetried to lift it， but it was far too heavy. He tied ropesaround it and tried to drag it. But it was so huge hecouldn t budge itaninch. Hebecamefrustrated，thinkinghewasluckytofindatreasure，andun-lucky not to beable to take it with him. Heeventriedkickingthehugelumpof gold. Butagainitwouldn t budge an inch.

Then he sat down and began to consider the sit-uation. He decided the only thing to do was to breakthe lump of gold into four smaller lumps. Then hecould carry home one piece at a time.

He thought，“One lump I will use for ordinaryday-to-day living. The second lump I will save for arainy day. The third lump I will invest in my farm-ing business. And I willgain merit with thefourthlump by giving it to the poor and needy and for oth-er good works.”

With a calm mind he divided the huge lump ofgold into these four smaller lumps. Then it was easyto carry them home on four separate trips.

Afterwards he lived happily.

從前有一個富裕的村莊。村民中最有錢的人決定將一大塊金子藏起來以免土匪和強盜來打劫。于是他將那塊金子埋在附近的稻田里。

許多年后，村子不再像以前那樣富裕，稻田地被荒廢，沒有人再去耕種。一個貧窮的農民決定去犁地。犁了一些地后，犁頭恰巧碰到了那塊早被人們遺忘的金子。

起先，農民以為犁頭一定是翻到了堅硬的樹根，但他扒開土時，才看到那是一塊閃光的金子。在白天他不敢將金子拿回家，于是他又將金子埋起來并等待夜幕的降臨。

半夜時，農民回來了。他將金子挖出來，想抬走金子，但是金子實在太重了，他用繩子將金塊捆住，想將金子拽回去。但是金塊太大了以致于他根本無法挪動。農民開始心煩，心想他能夠幸運地找到金子，卻無法抬走真是太倒霉了。他甚至去踢金塊，但是金塊仍然紋絲不動。

農民坐下來開始想辦法。他決定唯一可行的辦法就是將金塊分成 4 個小塊。那樣他每次可以抬一塊回家。

他這樣盤算著：“一塊金子用來支付日常的花銷。第二塊金子我會儲存起來度過雨季。第三塊金子我會用來投資農場生意。第四塊金子施舍給窮人和需要幫助的人，和交換其它的好東西，這樣我就可以獲得很多好處。”

于是他平靜地將那塊金子分成 4 個小塊。然后分 4 次將金塊帶回家。

從那以后他幸福地生活著。