Please Come Earlier Tomorrow

(Originally In English)

There was a person who had so much debt. He owed

practically everyone in the village something.

Every day some people came and wanted him to repay

the debt, but he always said, "Cannot! Please come

again." One day when he came back home, many of

his creditors were sitting all over the place -- on the

steps, outside the staircase, inside the house and all

that. So he came to one person who sat outside in

the sun, the most distance from the house and said,

very, very whispering-like in his ear, "Please come

back tomorrow, early, around seven in the morning."

That person was very happy -- oh! ho! -- and went

back home. Afterwards, all the other creditors got

nothing from him and they also left for home.

The next day that person came very early, about

seven o'clock in the morning. He just sat there and

waited, sat in the living room now, with the ones

who had debts having given him water and things

like that. He sat for a long time, and nothing happened.

So he said to the one who owed money, "Didn't you

tell me yesterday to come early? I thought you wanted

to repay me or something, but did not want to let other

people know. Is that not so? How come you haven't

talked about it yet?"

So the one who owed money said, "Oh, yesterday

I saw you were sitting in the sun and very far away,

so I told you to come early so you would have a

better seat. That's all. Well, if you have to wait

all day, you might as well sit in the cool shade, ah?"

明日請早

有個人負了很多債，幾乎全村的人沒有一個他不欠人家東西的。

每天都有一些人上門來討債，但他總是說：「不行，拜托

下次再來。」有一天他回家時，看到債主已經坐滿臺階在等，

他屋外的階梯及屋里滿滿都是人，所以他就走到那位坐在最外面、

坐在太陽底下的那位債主那兒，在他耳邊悄悄地告訴他：

「請你明天早上早一點再來，大約早上七點。」

那個人非常高興地回家了，其它的債主要不到東西也都回家去了。

　第二天，那個人一大早就來了，大約早上七點鐘，他來了之后就干坐

那兒等，現在他是坐在客廳里等。負債的那個人給他水之類的東西，

可是他坐在那里等了好久，卻沒看到什么動靜，所以他對那位負債的人

說：「昨天你不是叫我早點來嗎？我以為你要還我錢，不想讓其它人

知道，不是這樣嗎？你怎么到現在都不說半句話呢？」負債的人說：

「哦！昨天我看你坐在太陽底下、又坐那么遠，所以我才叫你早點來

搶個好位置，就這樣而已，如果你必須等一整天的話，最好坐在涼蔭的地方！