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A man came home from work late and found his five-year-old son waiting for him at the door.
“May I ask you a question, daddy?”
“What is it?” replied the man.
“How much do you make an hour, daddy?”
“It's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.
“I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” pleaded the little boy.
“If you must know, I make $20 an hour.”
“Oh,” the little boy replied, with his head down. Looking up, he said, “May I borrow $10, daddy?”
The father was furious. “If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish.”
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? After about an hour, the man had calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn't ask for money very often.
The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.
“Are you asleep, son?” he asked.
“No, daddy, I'm awake,” replied the boy.
“I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,” said the man. “It's been a long day and I vented my anger on you. Here's the $10 you asked for.”
The little boy sat straight up, smiling. “Oh, thank you, daddy!” he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at his father.
“Why do you want more money if you already have some?” the father grumbled.
“Because I didn't have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied. “Daddy, I have $20 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”
【参考译文】
买时间
一个男人工作到很晚才回家，发现五岁的儿子正在门口等他。
“爸爸，我可以问你一个问题吗？”
“什么问题？”那个男人反问道。
“爸爸，你一小时挣多少钱？”
“这不关你的事。你为什么要问这个问题？”那男人生气地说。
“我只是想知道。请告诉我，你一小时能挣多少钱？”小男孩恳求说。
“如果你一定要知道，我一小时挣二十块。”
“噢，”小男孩低着头回答说。他抬起头又说道：“爸爸，我可以向你借十块钱吗？”
那位父亲勃然大怒。“如果你借钱的唯一理由就是买一些可笑的玩具或别的一些东西，那你就直接回房间睡觉吧。想一想你为什么这样自私。”
小男孩默默地走到他的房间，关上门。那男人坐下来，越来越对小男孩的问题感到生气。他怎么敢问这样的问题，仅仅是为了得到一些钱吗？大约一小时之后，那男人冷静了下来，开始思考起来：也许他真的需要十块钱买一些东西，再说他的确不经常要钱。
那男人走到小男孩的房门口，打开了门。
“儿子，你睡着了吗？”他问。
“没有，爸爸，我醒着呢，”小男孩回答说。
“我一直在想，也许我刚才对你太厉害了，”那男人说，“一天真难熬，我向你发了火。这是你刚才要的十块钱。”
小男孩坐直身体，面带微笑，大声说道：“噢，爸爸，谢谢你。”说着，他将手伸到枕头下面，拿出了一些皱巴巴的钱。那男人看到小男孩已经有了钱，又开始生起了气。小男孩慢慢地数着钱，然后抬起头看着他的爸爸。
“为什么你已经有了钱还要钱呀？”他咕哝道。
“因为我没有足够的钱，但现在我有了，”小男孩回答说，“爸爸，我现在有二十块钱了。我能买你一个小时的时间吗？请你明天早点回家。我想和你一块吃饭。”
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