Cherishing Words As Gold

(Originally In Chinese)

Once there was a child who had lived to be seven without

ever having spoken one word. His parents thought he was dumb.

They took him to a doctor, but were unable to find out the reason

why he wouldn't speak. No matter what they tried,

he did not say anything.

One day, as the child was eating soup, in the middle of the

meal he suddenly exclaimed, "Ayah! Too much salt!"

Everyone was startled, "Ah! Aren't you dumb?"

"What!" he replied. "Who is dumb? I think you're dumb!"

His family wondered and asked, "Why didn't you say anything

for the past seven years, and now all of a sudden you begin to talk?"

He replied, "There had never been anything to complain about!

But whoever cooked the food today, put so much salt in it.

How can anyone swallow something like this!?"

惜語如金

有一個小孩，他從小到七歲沒有講過一句話，父母

都認為他是啞巴，帶他去看醫生也找不出理由，

試什么辦法還是不會講話。

　 有一天，這個小孩吃飯時喝下一口湯后，突然說：

「哎呀！太多鹽巴了！」大家都嚇了一跳：

「啊！你不是啞巴嗎？」他說：「啞什么巴，

你才是啞巴，誰啞巴！」他的家人感到很好奇，

就問他：「怎么你七年來都不講一句話，

今天忽然間就講話了？」他說：「從來沒什么應該抱怨嘛！

今天是什么人煮，放那么多鹽巴，那么咸怎么能吃？」