A clear conscience

原文

The whole village soon learnt that a large sum of money had been lost. Sam Benton, the local butcher, had lost his wallet while taking his saving to the post office. Sam was sure that the wallet must have been found by one of the villagers, but it was not returned to him. Three months passed, and then one morning, Sam found his wallet outside his front door. It had been wrapped up in newspaper and it contained half the money he had lost, together with a note which said: "A thief, yes, but only 50 per cent a thief!" Two months later, some more money was sent to Sam with another note: "Only 25 per cent a thief now!" In time, all Sam's money was paid back in this way. The last note said: "I am 100 per cent honest now!"

译文

这个小镇很快就在传扬一件事情，有人丢了一大笔钱。萨姆.本顿，一位本地的屠夫，他在去邮局送存款的路上遗失了自己的钱包。他能肯定是镇上另外一个人捡到他的钱包，但是没有还给他。三个月过去，一天早上，萨姆发现他的钱包放在他家大门外。它被报纸包裹着里面有一半丢失的钱，并且还附有一张纸条：“一个窃贼，是的，一个百分之五十的窃贼！” 两个月过去了，一些钱又还给萨姆又附上另外一张纸条：“现在只是百分二十五的盗贼了！” 现在，所有萨姆遗失的钱都通过这种方式还了回来。最有一张字条：“现在我是百分百好人了！”

转载于:https://my.oschina.net/robinsonlu/blog/502747