趣味英语故事16

I've Passed My Right on to You

我把权利转让给你了

One day, Wilson was walking quietly along the road when somebody gave him a violent blow on the back of the neck. He looked behind him, and saw a young man whom he had never seen before.

“How dare you hit me like that!”shouted Wilson.

The young man said he had mistaken Wilson for a friend of his and that he thought Wilson was making a lot of noise about nothing.

This insult made Wilson even angrier, of course, and he at once arranged for the young man to be brought before a judge. There was nothing for the young man to do but to appear before the court.

Now, the judge who heard the case was a friend of the young man's father, and, although he pretended to

be quite fair, he was thinking how he could avoid punishing the young man while at the same time not appearing unjust.

Finally he said to Wilson,“I understand your feelings in this matter very well. Would you be satisfied if I let you hit the young man as he hit you?”

Wilson said he would not be. The young man had insulted him and should be properly punished.

“Well, then,”said the judge to the young man,“I order you to pay ten liras to Wilson.”

Ten liras was very little for such a crime, but the young man did not have it with him, so the judge allowed him to go and get it.

Wilson waited for him to return with the money. He waited an hour, he waited two hours, while the judge attended to other business.

When it was nearly time for the court to close, Wilson chose a moment when the judge was especially busy, came up quietly behind him and hit him hard on the back of the neck. Then he said to him,“I am sorry, but I can't wait any longer. When the young man comes back, tell him that I have passed my right to the ten liras on to you.”