老太婆和醫(yī)生 The Old Woman and the Physician

The Old Woman and the Physician
  An old woman having lost the use of her eyes, called in a Physician to heal them, and made this bargain with him in the presence of witnesses:  that if he should cure her blindness, he should receive from her a sum of money; but if her infirmity remained, she should give him nothing.  This agreement being made, the Physician, time after time, applied his salve to her eyes, and on every visit took something away, stealing all her property little by little.  And when he had got all she had, he healed her and demanded the promised payment.  The Old Woman, when she recovered her sight and saw none of her goods in her house, would give him nothing.  The Physician insisted on his claim, and.  as she still refused, summoned her before the Judge.  The Old Woman, standing up in the Court, argued:  "This man here speaks the truth in what he says; for I did promise to give him a sum of money if I should recover my sight:  but if I continued blind, I was to give him nothing.  Now he declares that I am healed.  I on the contrary affirm that I am still blind; for when I lost the use of my eyes, I saw in my house various chattels and valuable goods:  but now, though he swears I am cured of my blindness, I am not able to see a single thing in it." 

    有位患了眼病的老太婆，請(qǐng)一位醫(yī)生給她治病，并談定了治療費(fèi)。那醫(yī)生每次來(lái)給她上藥治療時(shí)，總是乘她閉著眼睛，順手牽羊地偷走一些家具。老太婆的病終于治愈了，可她家里的東西幾乎被偷光了。醫(yī)生便向老太婆要商定好的治療費(fèi)，老太婆不肯付錢(qián)，便被帶到法官那里。她說(shuō)她許諾過(guò)要付給醫(yī)生治療費(fèi)，條件是把她的眼病治好，可是經(jīng)過(guò)醫(yī)治后，她的眼睛卻比以前更糟了。她說(shuō)：“以前我還能看見(jiàn)家里的所有物品，現(xiàn)在卻都看不見(jiàn)了。”
    這故事是說(shuō)，貪得無(wú)厭的人，總會(huì)不知不覺(jué)地留下自己的罪證。