一块大金子

郑远舟

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.

從前有一个富裕的村庄。村民中最有钱的人决定将一大块金子藏起来以免土匪和强盗来打劫。于是他将那块金子埋在附近的稻田里。

许多年后，村子不再像以前那样富裕，稻田地被荒废，没有人再去耕种。一个贫穷的农民决定去犁地。犁了一些地后，犁头恰巧碰到了那块早被人们遗忘的金子。

起先，农民以为犁头一定是翻到了坚硬的树根，但他扒开土时，才看到那是一块闪光的金子。在白天他不敢将金子拿回家，于是他又将金子埋起来并等待夜幕的降临。

半夜时，农民回来了。他将金子挖出来，想抬走金子，但是金子实在太重了，他用绳子将金块捆住，想将金子拽回去。但是金块太大了以致于他根本无法挪动。农民开始心烦，心想他能够幸运地找到金子，却无法抬走真是太倒霉了。他甚至去踢金块，但是金块仍然纹丝不动。

农民坐下来开始想办法。他决定唯一可行的办法就是将金块分成 4 个小块。那样他每次可以抬一块回家。

他这样盘算着：“一块金子用来支付日常的花销。第二块金子我会储存起来度过雨季。第三块金子我会用来投资农场生意。第四块金子施舍给穷人和需要帮助的人，和交换其它的好东西，这样我就可以获得很多好处。”

于是他平静地将那块金子分成 4 个小块。然后分 4 次将金块带回家。

从那以后他幸福地生活着。