A man came home from work late again, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door. "Daddy, may I ask you a question?""Yeah, sure, what is it?" replied the man.
"Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?"
"That's none of your business. What makes you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.
"I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?" pleaded the little boy.
"If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour."
"Oh," the little boy replied, head bowed.
Looking up, he said, "Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?"
The father was furious. "If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you're being so selfish. I work long, hard hours everyday and don't have time for such childish games."
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy's questioning. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money. After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10.00 and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.
"Are you asleep son?" he asked.
"No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy.
"I've been thinking, may be I was too hard on you earlier," said the man."It's been a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here's that $10.00 you asked for."
The little boy sat straight up, beaming. "Oh, thank you daddy" he yelled.
Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpled up bills.The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at the man. "Why did you want more money if you already had some? " the father grumbled.
"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied.
"Daddy, I have $20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?" After listening the boy;s words,the man's eyes was moist.
Share $20.00 worth of time with someone you love...just a short reminder to all of us working so hard for our living. However, let us not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some quality time with those who really matter to us.
参考译文
一个男人又一次很晚才下班回家，疲惫不堪，心心烦躁。他发现自己五岁的儿子正等在门口。“爸爸，我可以问您一个问题吗？”“是的，你当然可以问了，是什么问题呢？”男人说。
“爸爸，您一小时可以挣多少钱？”
“那不关你的事。你怎么会问这种事？”男人生气地说。
小男孩恳求着说道：“我只是想知道。请告诉我吧，您一小时可以挣多少钱？”
“如果你一定要知道的话，现在我就告诉你，每小时二十美元。”
“哦，”小男孩有些沮丧地回答着并低下了头。
他又抬起了头，说道：“爸爸，我可以向您借十美元吗？”
这位父亲已经忍无可忍了。“如果你问我一小时赚多少钱的原因就是向我借钱去买什么愚蠢的玩具或其它类似的东西的话，你现在就可以回屋睡觉去了！想想你怎么会如此自私，我每天辛辛苦苦地工作，哪儿有时间陪你玩这种无聊的小孩子的游戏。”
小男孩默默地回到自己的房间，关上了房门。男人坐了下来，想着男孩问的问题，更是愤怒至极，这个小家伙，怎么可以为了借些钱就问出这样的问题。大约过了一个小时，男人平静了下来，并开始考虑到自己或许儿子过于粗暴了。也许他真的很需要那十美元来买一些他真正需要的东西，而且他也不经常向自己要钱。于是男人来到小男孩的房间并推开了房门。
他问道：“你睡了吗，儿子？”
男孩回答说：“不，爸爸，我还没睡呢。”
男人说：“我已经想过了，也许刚才我的话太过刻薄了，工作了整整一天，我把自己的烦恼都发泄在你的身上了。拿着，这是你想要的十美元。”
小男孩坐起身来，高兴地叫道：“哦，爸爸，谢谢您。”
然后，小男孩又在枕头底下拿出了一些已经褶皱了的钱币。男人看到孩子已经有了钱，便又开始生气了。小男孩慢慢的数着手里的钱，然后又看了看男人。男人不不悦地说道：“即然你已经有钱了，怎么还向我要呢？”
“因为我的钱不够啊，但是现在就够了。”
男孩回答道，“爸爸，现在我有二十美元了。我可以买下您一小时的时间吗？”听了男孩的话后，男人眼圈湿润了。
和你所爱的人一同分享二十美元的时光吧...这只是给那些忙于生计的人们一个小小的提示。不管怎样，在我们没有同真正重要的人一起度过有意义的时光之前，不要让时光悄悄地从我们的指尖溜走。
