掩耳盜鈴

Covering One's Ears While Stealing a Bell

掩耳盜鈴

Mr. Wang thinks he is clever, but he always does [en]foolish

things.[/en]

王先生總以為自己很聰明，實際上他總干傻事。

One day he sees a beautiful bell at the top of a door. "Oh! How nice! I will take it home." He thinks, "What can I do?" After a while he has a "good" idea. "Aha! I have an idea now. I can plug my ears. Then I will not hear the ring when I take off the bell."

一天，他看見一戶人家的門頭有個很漂亮的鈴鐺。"啊，真漂亮啊!我要把它拿回家去。"他自言自語道："我該怎么做呢?"過了一會兒他想到了一個"好"主意。"啊哈!我有辦法了!我把耳朵堵上，拿鈴鐺的時候就聽不見鈴聲了。"

Then he does so. But as soon as he takes off the bell, the owner opens the door. "What are you doing?" the owner says angrily.

于是他就這樣做了?？墒撬麆偰孟骡忚K，屋子的主人就打開門，怒氣沖沖地說："你在干什么?"

【成語來源】

At the time when Fan, a nobleman of the state of Jin, became a fugitive, a commoner found a bell and wanted to carry it off on his back.

春秋時侯，晉國貴族智伯滅掉了范氏。有人趁機跑到范氏家里想偷點東西，看見院子里吊著一口大鐘。鐘是用上等青銅鑄成的，造型和圖案都很精美。小偷心里高興極了，想把這口精美的大鐘背回自已家去。

But the bell was too big for him.

可是鐘又大又重，怎么也挪不動。

When he tried to knock it into pieces with a hammer there was a loud clanging sound. [/en]

他想來想去，只有一個辦法，那就是把鐘敲碎，然后再分別搬回家。小偷找來一把大錘，拼命朝鐘砸去，咣的一聲巨響，把他嚇了一大跳。

He was afraid that someone will hear the noise and take the bell from him, so he immediatelystopped his own ears.

小偷著慌，心想這下糟了，這種聲不就等于是告訴人們我正在這里偷鐘嗎?他越聽越害怕，不同自由地抽回雙手，使勁捂住自已的耳朵。

To worry about other people hearing the noise is understandable, but to worry about himself hearing the noise (as if stopping his own ears would prevent other people from hearing) isabsurd.

“咦，鐘聲變小了，聽不見了!”小偷高興起來，“妙極了!把耳朵捂住不住就聽不進鐘聲了嗎!”他立刻找來兩個布團，把耳朵塞住，心想，這下誰也聽不見鐘聲了。于是就放手砸起鐘來，一下一下，鐘聲響亮地傳到很遠的地方。人們聽到鐘聲蜂擁而至把小偷捉住了。