Once there was a scholar who was very poor，but was very much concerned with his reputation. One evening，a thief broke into the scholar’s house，but he could find nothing worth stealing. So he said，"What bad lucky Ihave hit upon a real beggars”Hearing this，the scholar fished out little money he had from his bed head，and went after the thief. He stopped the thief and whispered to him，"You come at a most inopportune time. Would you please make do with this little money2 But for Heaven’s sake¹ don’t talk about it in front of anyone else.By all means leave me a little face，eh?”

从前有个读书人家里很穷，却很爱面子。一天晚上，小偷到他家来行窃，却没有东西值得一偷，就说:“晦气，我算碰到真正的穷鬼了!”读书人听见了，就从床头摸出仅有的几文钱，追上去拦住小偷，轻轻地说:“你来得真不巧。请将就些把这些钱拿去。不过在人家面前，你可千万不要随便说，给我留点面子啊。”