A Story about Honesty
一个诚实的故事
On February twelfth, a Friday night in New York in winter, a poor handsome young man called Jay stood near the railway station, playing a small concert on his violin. The music was so excellentthat many people slowed down, sometimes gave a cheer or praise, and put some money into his hat.
On Saturday, Jay came again. He took out a large piece of paper and laid it on the ground. Then he began playing with speed, lively and proud, in this public space. It seemed more pleasant to listen to, a perfect program of music. Before long, many people came, looking at the paper. Manypointed at it, wondering. It said, “Last night, a gentleman named George Sang put an important thing into my hat. Please come to claim it soon.” Jay knew the man was somewhere out there.
Seeing this, people wondered what it could be. After about half an hour, a middle-aged manrushed through the many people to the young man and said, “I’m George. I knew you’d come here!”
Then George explained the whole story. He bought a lottery ticket a few days ago. Yesterday he found that he won a prize of $500,000. He was very excited to be a winner. On his way home, he felt the music was so wonderful that he took out $100 and put it into the hat. However, the lottery ticket with his name on it was also mistakenly thrown in.
Jay was a student at an arts school in Paris. He had booked a flight on an airplane that would leave from the airport that morning to go across the Atlantic. However, when he happened to find the ticket holder had won the lottery, he cancelled the flight and came back to the railway station. He knew to whom the ticket belonged. George, the owner of the object said that Jay was his hero.
Later, after hearing the tale, someone asked Jay, “What a huge discovery! Why didn’t you take the lottery ticket for yourself?” He said, “Although I don’t have much money, I live happily in general; but if I lose honesty, I won’t be happy forever. I cannot afford to do that.”
译文
2月12日星期五的傍晚，在纽约，一个英俊而又贫穷的年轻人站在地铁站门口，他叫杰，正拉着他的小提琴开着属于自己的演奏会。琴声优美动听，很多人情不自禁地放慢了脚步，时不时地发出赞美或欢呼声，并在年轻人跟前的礼帽里放一些钱。
星期六，杰又来了。他从包里拿出一张大纸，铺在地面上。然后他开始演奏，欢快、活泼并充满豪情的乐曲回荡在这块公共场所内。乐声似乎比以前更动听更悠扬，像是一出完美的音乐节目。不久，来了很多人，大家都看着地面上的纸。很多人疑惑地指指点点。上面写着：“昨天傍晚，有一位叫乔治•桑的先生错将一份很重要的东西放在我的礼帽里，请速来认领。”杰知道这个男士就在此地的某处。
见此情景，人们都想知道这是一份什么样的东西。过了半小时左右，一位中年男人急急忙忙跑到年轻人跟前说：“我就是乔治。我就知道您会来这儿的！”
然后，乔治解释了整件事情。几天前，他买了一张彩票。昨天，他发现他中了50万美元的奖金。他非常兴奋自己能中奖。回家的路上，他觉得音乐特别美妙，于是掏出100美元放在礼帽里，可是不小心把写着自己名字的奖票也扔了进去。
杰是巴黎一名艺术学院的学生。他已订好机票，飞机应今早从机场起飞穿越大西洋。可是他整理东西时发现了这张彩票，于是就退掉了机票，又来到了地铁口。他知道这张彩票属于谁。彩票的得主乔治称赞杰是他的英雄。
后来，在听了这个故事后，有人问杰：“这是一个多么大的发现啊，你怎么不自己拿了呢？”杰回答说：“虽然我没什么钱，但我活得很快乐；假如我没了诚信，我一天也不会快乐。这个代价我承受不起。”