第1545期：你借过千斤顶吗？Have you borrowed a jack?

最近在一个podcast中听了一个千斤顶的故事，发人深省，今天分享给你。

这个小故事最早发表在1954年Reader’s Digest上，作者：J.P. McEvoy

这期《读者文摘》我没找到，只找到了一个网站上对这个故事的叙述。

故事大意：

有天晚上，一个人开车在乡间路上，爆了一个轮胎。他想换轮胎，但没有千斤顶。

他看见不远处有灯光，就想去找那家人借千斤顶来用。

他一边走，心里一边设想下面的场景：

“这么晚了，我去敲门，对方肯定不高兴被打扰了清梦，可能会要我付钱才肯借给我千斤顶吧。

如果他要钱，我就给他两毛五。

他大概会嫌少，肯定会要一块钱，否则就不借给我千斤顶。

哼，吝啬鬼，一块就一块吧，真没人性。”

他一边暗自想着，一边气鼓鼓地走到了那户人家。他大力拍门，农夫问谁啊？干什么的？

他吼道：“装什么装啊，你知道我是谁。你不就是有个该死的千斤顶嘛！”

* * *

这是我粗略的翻译，英文原文附文末。

你从这个故事想到了什么？

每个人的生活中都碰到过类似开车爆胎的意外，在我们急需一个千斤顶的时候，我们的内心剧场里上演了怎样的独角戏？我们对尚未发生的事做了哪些武断的臆测和假想？

这些假想最后成真了吗？

绝大多数都没有吧？人生中绝大多数我们最害怕的所谓最坏的结局最终都没有发生。

而真正的大难要来时，谁也挡不住，担心也没用了。

马克·吐温说：

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” – Mark Twain

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英文原文：

A fellow was speeding down a country road late at night and BANG! went a tire. He got out and looked and drat it he had no jack. Then he said to himself. “Well, I’ll just walk to the nearest farmhouse and borrow a jack!” He saw a light in the distance and said, “Well, I’m in luck; the farmer’s up. I’ll just knock on the door and say I’m in trouble, would you please lend me a jack? And he’ll say, why sure, neighbor, help yourself – but bring it back.”

He walked on a little farther and the light went out, so he said to himself, “Now he’s gone to bed and he’ll be annoyed because I’m bothering him- so he’ll probably want some money for his jack. And I’ll say, all right, it isn’t very neighborly – but I’ll give you a quarter. And he’ll say, do you think you can get me out of bed in the middle of the night and then offer me a quarter? Give me a dollar or get yourself a jack somewhere else.”

By that time the fellow had worked himself into a lather. He turned into the gate and muttered. “A dollar! All right, I’ll give you a dollar. But not a cent more! A poor devil has an accident and all he needs is a jack. You probably won’t let me have one no matter what I give you. That’s the kind of guy you are.”

Which brought him to the door and he knocked – angrily, loudly. The farmer stuck his head out the window above the door and hollered down, “Who’s there? What do you want?” The fellow stopped pounding on the door and yelled up, “You and your damn jack! You know what you can do with it!”

摘自：https://www.markupandprofit.com/articles/borrowing-jacks/

推荐podcast: 文學的異想世界，播主：張瑞芬

可在Apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotif等播客平台搜索。