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107.To Give or Not to Give
107.给还是不给
As Joe walked down the street he passed an old man sitting in the gutter.
乔沿街而行的时候经过了一个坐在贫民区的老人。
"Spare some change?" the old man said, asking Joe for a hand out.
"给点儿零钱吧？"老人说,求乔给他一点施舍。
And even though Joe had a handsome salary and was earning bonuses hand over fist, he was hard put to it to give him anything.
尽管乔拿着很高的薪水，而且很容易就能得到许多奖金，却为给他钱的事儿犯难了。
But then he looked at the old man's clothes; they were obviously hand-me-downs from other people and his life was hanging by a thread.
不过这时他看了一眼老人的穿着，他穿的显然都是别人送的衣服，他的生命也危在旦夕。
"Well, I just happen to have a twenty dollar bill here!" Joe said.
"哎呀，我这里碰巧有一张20元的钞票！"乔说。
"Eh?" the old man said, indicating that he was hard of hearing.
"嗯？"老人说，听上去像是耳朵有点儿背。
Joe pulled out the twenty, didn't say anything more and showed it to the old man.
乔拿出那20元钱，没有再说任何话，只是把钱给老人看。
"I have twenty dollars!" Joe said loudly.
"我有20元钱！"乔大声说道。
The old man pricked up his ears, hanging on Joe's words.
老人竖起耳朵认真听着乔的话。
"Are you going to hang on to it?" the old man said.
"你准备紧紧抓住不放吗？"老人说。
"Or do you want me to do something for it? Don't be hard on me. I could really use it!"
"还是你想要我做点什么？别让我难受了。我真的需要钱！"
"No, no. It's yours!" And Joe gave the man the twenty dollars. "Here!"
"不，不。这钱是你的了！"乔把20元钱给了老人。"拿着！"
The old man took the money and said 'That's the most anyone has ever given me, hands down!
老人接过钱说："还没有人给过我这么多钱，毫无疑问！
Thanks for sparing a bit of your hard earnings.
谢谢你把你辛苦挣来的钱分给了我一点。
I promise my drinking ways will be hung up and I'll turn over a new leaf!"
我保证我将停止酗酒，重新做人！"
Joe smiled and walked away. He didn't even have any hard feelings about losing the twenty.
乔笑着走开。对于失去那20元钱他甚至都没有一点反感情绪。
Now if he could just find a way to hand in a receipt for it so that he could get reimbursed at work for charitable giving ...
要是他能想办法交张发票上去，他的慈善之举在工作中能得到欣慰就好啦……
