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?"
有个人负了很多债，几乎全村的人没有一个他不欠人家东西的。每天都有一些人上门来讨债，但他总是说：「不行，拜托下次再来。」有一天他回家时，看到债主已经坐满台阶在等，他屋外的阶梯及屋里满满都是人，所以他就走到那位坐在最外面、坐在太阳底下的那位债主那儿，在他耳边悄悄地告诉他：「请你明天早上早一点再来，大约早上七点。」那个人非常高兴地回家了，其它的债主要不到东西也都回家去了。第二天，那个人一大早就来了，大约早上七点钟，他来了之后就干坐那儿等，现在他是坐在客厅里等。负债的那个人给他水之类的东西，可是他坐在那里等了好久，却没看到什么动静，所以他对那位负债的人说：「昨天你不是叫我早点来吗？我以为你要还我钱，不想让其它人知道，不是这样吗？你怎么到现在都不说半句话呢？」负债的人说：哦！昨天我看你坐在太阳底下、又坐那么远，所以我才叫你早点来抢个好位置，就这样而已，如果你必须等一整天的话，最好坐在凉荫的地方！
