那些給我智慧和勇氣的寓言故事12:園丁與烏龜
One early morning, an old gardener found his garden in a mess and lots of his flowers missing. He was so angry that he shouted,“Who dares to mess up my garden？ Who has done this？”
一天早晨，一個老園丁發現自己的花園裏一片零亂，花兒也少了很多。老園丁很生氣，他嚷道：“是誰把我的花園搞得一團糟！是誰幹的！”In order to protect his remaining flowers from being destroyed, he decided to lock the garden gate in the evening.
爲了不讓花兒再遭到破壞，老園丁便在夜裏把柵門緊緊地關了起來。The next morning, the old gardener discovered some of his flowers missing again. The angry old gardener decided to find out how that happened.
第二天一早，老園丁發現花兒又少了。氣憤的老園丁決定要查個水落石出。
When night came, he sat quietly to watch his garden. Soon he saw a tortoise moving slowly into the garden. Once inside, it opened its mouth so wide that it took only one bite to swallow the whole flower.
到了晚上，老園丁靜靜地守在花叢中。這時，他看到一隻烏龜慢慢地爬進花園裏。烏龜進來後，張開大嘴，一口就把一朵花兒吃掉了。The gardener shouted,“I've caught you this time！”
“這回我可抓住你了。”老園丁喊了起來。The tortoise quickly said,“Please forgive me！”But the old gardener shook his head,“no way.”“My kind lord, if you really want to punish me,”continued the poor tortoise,“I will not resist because I am the one that is guilty. But, no matter what you decide, please do not drown me in the water. It is too painful to die that way.”
烏龜哀求道：“饒了我吧！”但是老園丁搖着頭說：“門兒都沒有。”“仁慈的老先生，如果你非要處死我不可，”烏龜裝出一副可憐的樣子，“我也只好認命了，畢竟是我做了錯事，理應受到懲罰。可是，你用什麼方法處死我都行，就是別淹死我，因爲淹死實在是太難受了。”“Since you have destroyed so many of my beautiful flowers, I must punish you！”said the old gardener and he immediately threw the tortoise into a lake next to his garden.
“你毀了我那麼多漂亮的花兒，我必須懲罰你！”話音未落，老園丁就把烏龜扔到了花園旁的湖裏。After a while, the tortoise surfaced and swam about happily. The old gardener then realised that he had been tricked because the tortoise was not afraid of the water.
不一會兒，烏龜從湖裏冒出頭來，自由自在地游來游去。老園丁這才意識到自己被騙了，因爲烏龜根本就不怕水。
