57. THE SNAKE'S PEARLS
"What is that?" asked one sentry.
"It's just a snake. Let's kill it," said his buddy. They took up their spears to kill that colorful little snake.
"Halt!" came the voice of command. Both men froze when they saw it was the Duke of Sui himself telling them to stop! "Can't you see it's already wounded? Poor thing." Sure enough, they could see that the snake was already wounded in the head.
The Duke kindly picked up the snake with his staff, and took it to the river bank. He told the soldiers to leave it alone.
A while later, one sentry called the other, "Hey, look, that snake's come back again."
"Yeah, and it's got something in its mouth."
"Say, will you look at that? It's carrying a pearl!" The other soldiers came running when they heard that. The little snake just kept going straight ahead. "See where it's going," someone called. They got out of the way, and the little snake went right to the Duke's tent and dropped the pearl at his feet.
"That certainly is nice of you," said the Duke, "But I'm an imperial officer.I'm not supposed to accept gifts, you know." The snake wouldn't budge an inch until the Duke picked up the pearl and put it in his pocket.
That night, the Duke dreamed that he stepped on a snake by accident. He was so startled that he woke up and looked at his feet to see if he had been bitten.., it was just a dream. But what's that? He found another pearl sitting by his feet, and that was no dream.
Two beautiful pearls! The Duke was a kind man, and really didn't want any reward for saving the snake, but he had two priceless pearls and nobody to return them to, so he put them away as a reminder to be kind to all living things.
This story spread far and wide, and many people were realized that even an animal that crawls on the ground values its life. This story got even some nasty people to think, and to change their ways. Gradually, more and more people learned to love life and to stop killing things and tormenting animals.
For the Duke of Sui, that was a much better reward than the pearls!
57.蛇珠
“那是什么？”一个哨兵问。
“一条蛇而已。杀了它吧。”他同伴说。他们拿起矛，要杀那条鲜艳的蛇。
“住手！”传来一声命令。两个人一看到是隋侯爷叫他们住手，马上停手了。“没看到它已经受伤了吗?可怜的小东西。”果然，他们看到那条蛇的头受伤了。
侯爷小心翼翼地用他的杖把蛇挑起来，送回河边。他叫士兵们别碰它。
一会，一个哨兵对另一个说，“嘿，看，那条蛇又回来了。”
“是啊，它嘴里衔着什么东西。”
“嘿，看到了吗？它衔着一颗珍珠！”当其他士兵听到，赶紧跑过来。那条蛇只顾往前爬。“看它要去哪里，”一些人说。他们让开了路，那条蛇径直向侯爷的帐篷爬去，把珍珠扔在他的脚上。
“你真好，”侯爷说，“但我是朝廷命官，我不能接受礼物的。”那条蛇一动不动直到侯爷把珍珠拣起来放到口袋里。
这天晚上，侯爷梦到他踩在一条蛇上。他吓醒了，检查自己的脚看是不是被咬了……只是个梦。可那是什么？他在自己的脚上发现有一颗珍珠，这可不是一个梦。
两粒漂亮的珍珠！侯爷是一个善良的人，救了那条蛇，但是不想要任何回报，可是现在他有了两颗无价的珍珠，而且也不知道怎么归还，所以他只好把它们当作纪念品储藏起来，提醒自己要善待所有生物。
这个故事很快传开了，许多人都相信即使是地上爬的生物，也珍惜自己的生命。这个故事还让一些无耻的人开始思索，改变了自己习惯。渐渐地，越来越多的人知道要爱惜生命停止杀生和虐待动物。
对隋侯爷来说，这是比珍珠更好的报答了！
