Long,long ago， there was a very rich man whose name was Jack. He had got a bag of gold from business（做生意）, but he didn’t know where to keep it. He was afraid that thieves might break into his house and steal it away.
　　 One day, when it was time to go to bed, he put the gold bag beside his pillow and tied the bag to his arm. But he was awake all night because he was worrying about the gold. Finally, he decided to hide the bag of gold in a hole near a tall tree in his back garden.
　　 “But the people may still know that there’s gold in the hole,” Jack thought. Suddenly, he got a wonderful idea. He wrote a note, that read, “There is no gold near the tree here.”Then he put the note on the trunk. That night, he slept very well.
　　 The next morning, as soon as Jack woke up, he went to his back garden and tried to get back the gold. When he dug up the hole, he discoverd that the bag of the gold was not there. He was shocked and angry. “The man next door might have seen me hiding the gold and stolen it,”he said to himself.
　　 Just then, he saw another note beside the one that he wrote. It was written by Sam , “I haven’t stolen your gold. Sam.”Sam lived in the house next to the man’s. “I don’t think my gold was stolen by Sam. He’s honest. There must be someone else,”Jack thought.
　　 Do you think who stole the gold?
　　
　　 从前有一个很有钱的男子，名叫杰克。他经商挣得了一袋金子，但是他不知道该把这袋金子放在哪里。他害怕小偷破门而入把金子偷走了。
　　 有一天他准备上床睡觉的时候，他把这袋金子放在枕头旁边并且把袋子拴在胳膊上。但是他整夜没有睡着，因为他在担心他的金子。最后他决定把这袋金子藏在自家后花园的一棵大树附近的洞里。
　　 “ 但是人们还是可能知道洞里有金子”，杰克想。突然，他有了一个奇妙的主意。他写了一张纸条，写的是“这棵树的附近没有金子”，然后，他把纸条贴在树干上。那一夜，他睡得很香。
　　 第二天早晨，杰克一醒来，就去后花园想把金子取回来。当他挖开那个洞的时候，发现那袋金子已经不在那里了。他非常震惊、气愤。“隔壁的那个男人可能看见我藏金子并偷了金子，”他自言自语地说道。
　　 就在这时，他看到他写的纸条旁边有另一张纸条。是萨姆写的。“我没有偷你的金子。萨姆。”萨姆住在杰克家隔壁。“我认为我的金子不是萨姆偷的。他是诚实的。一定是另外一个人。”杰克想。
　　 你认为谁偷了金子呢？
　　（江苏颜景泉 选译）