Where Can You Find the Riches

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An African farmer had heard tales about other farmers who had made millions of dollars by discovering diamond mines. These tales so excited the farmer that he could hardly wait to sell his farm and go prospecting for diamonds himself.

一個(gè)非洲農(nóng)民聽說(shuō)過(guò)很多關(guān)于其他農(nóng)民們因?yàn)榘l(fā)現(xiàn)鉆礦而一夜暴富的故事。這些故事讓這位農(nóng)民如此心潮澎湃，他等不及要賣掉農(nóng)場(chǎng)，踏上探礦之路。

So he sold the farm and spent the rest of his life wandering the African continent, searching unsuccessfully for the gleaming gems that brought such high prices on the markets of the world.

于是他賣掉了農(nóng)場(chǎng)，余生游蕩在非洲大陸，尋找著那在世界市場(chǎng)上價(jià)格始終高居不下的發(fā)光的寶石。

Finally, broke, worn out, and in a fit of despondency, he threw himself into a river and drowned.

最后，他破產(chǎn)了、筋疲力盡了，一時(shí)的絕望之下，他投河自盡。

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the man who had bought his farm happened to be crossing a small stream on the property one day when he saw something gleaming at the bottom of the stream. He picked it up. It was a sparkling stone - a good size stone - and, admiring it, he later put it on his fireplace mantel as an interesting curiosity.

與此同時(shí)，在原來(lái)那個(gè)農(nóng)場(chǎng)，那個(gè)買下農(nóng)場(chǎng)的人一天碰巧跨過(guò)農(nóng)場(chǎng)里的一條小溪，他看見溪底有什么東西在閃閃發(fā)光。他把它撿了起來(lái)，是一塊發(fā)光的石頭——很大一塊——他欣賞著它，并把它當(dāng)作一個(gè)有趣的珍藏放在壁爐架上。

Several weeks later, a visitor admired the stone, looked closely at it, hefted it in his hand and nearly fainted. He asked the farmer if he knew what he'd found. When the farmer said no, that he thought it was just a piece of crystal, the visitor told him he had found one of the largest diamonds ever discovered.

幾個(gè)星期后，一位客人來(lái)欣賞那塊石頭，他仔細(xì)觀摩著，放在手上掂量著，然后幾乎暉厥過(guò)去。他問(wèn)那個(gè)農(nóng)民是否知道自己撿到的是什么。農(nóng)民說(shuō)不知道，他以為只是一塊水晶。那位客人告訴他，他撿到的是迄今為止人類發(fā)現(xiàn)的最大鉆石之一。

The farmer was astonished. He told the man that his creek was full of these brilliant stones, and his farmland was covered with them. Not all were as large, perhaps, as the one on his mantel, but they were sprinkled generously throughout his property.

那個(gè)農(nóng)民震驚極了。他告訴那位客人他的小溪里到處都是這種發(fā)光的石頭，他的農(nóng)田也被這種石頭覆蓋著。也許不是所有都象壁爐架上的那塊一樣大，但是它們遍布農(nóng)場(chǎng)的每一個(gè)角落。

Needless to say, the farm the first farmer had sold, so that he could search for a diamond mine, turned out to be the most productive diamond mine on the entire African continent.

不必說(shuō)，第一個(gè)農(nóng)民為了搜尋鉆礦而賣掉的農(nóng)場(chǎng)結(jié)果卻是整個(gè)非洲大陸上最多產(chǎn)的鉆礦。

The first farmer had owned, free and clear, acres of diamonds, but had sold them for practically nothing in order to look for them elsewhere.

第一個(gè)農(nóng)民本來(lái)名正言順地?fù)碛袔桩€的鉆石，但他卻為了去其他地方找鉆石而把它們賣了，賣得一文不值。

The moral is clear: If the first farmer hadonly taken the time to study and prepare himself - to learn what diamonds looked like in their rough state - and, since he had already owned a piece of land, to thoroughly explore the property he had before looking elsewhere, his wildest dreams would have come true.