张祖平

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.”

一个男人正在寻找古董。一天他来到一个村庄，发现一只蓝色的碗，看起来很古老。碗放在地上，一只猫正在喝碗里的牛奶。猫的主人是一个农夫，他正躺在碗的旁边。

为了不引起农夫对这只碗的价值的注意，男人轻声对农夫说：“多么漂亮的一只猫啊！卖给我，好吗？”

“你出价多少？”农夫睁开眼睛问道。

“二十美元，够吗？”

几分钟后，农夫答应了。男人付钱给农夫后，他说：“我的猫肯定会口渴。我能带走这只碗吗？那样我的猫就可以喝牛奶了。”

但是农夫却说：“对不起，我不能把碗给你。幸亏有了这只碗，我已经卖出了20只猫。”endprint