Two old beggars² were sitting on a busy street corner of a big city. They watched helplessly³ as a lot of people walked by without looking at them. Sometimes, a kind-hearted⁴ woman or a small child would drop a few coins in the hats in front of them.

Today was not a bad day for begging. The men were able to collect enough for a big meal. As it was getting dark, they started to pack their things.

Just as they were getting ready to leave, they noticed a man walking towards them. He was a rich man-they could tell that from his fine clothes. The first beggar¹ said to the second with excitement, “He's coming our way!” The man stopped, reached into his pocket and took something out. What looked like a piece of hard candy, wrapped⁵ in white paper, hit each of their waiting hats. The rich man turned and continued his way.

“He could have easily left us a few coins or a bill, but he laughed at us with a piece of rock candy,” said the first beggar. He looked at the offering⁶ angrily “We can't eat this at all-we have no teeth.” With these words, he picked up the thing and threw it away. Then he collected his things and left.

The second beggar wanted to do the same, but a second thought made him change his mind “I haven't had anything like this for ages,” he thought. “How nice of that man to offer me something so sweet!” With that, he opened the white paper. To his surprise there was no rock candy inside. Instead, a shiny⁷ white pearl⁸ worth thousands of dollars fell into his hand.

文章大意：

两个老乞丐此刻正坐在大城市中一个繁忙的街角。他们看起来很无助，因为虽然很多人经过他们身边，但是没有人看他们一眼。偶尔会有一个心地善良的女人或小孩会丢一些硬币到他们跟前的帽子里。

今天是乞讨的好日子，他们已经讨到一顿大餐的钱了。天色渐渐变暗，他们也开始收拾东西了。

正当他们准备离开的时候，他们注意到一个男人正向他们走来。从他光鲜的衣服可以推断出他是一个有钱人。第一个乞丐兴奋地对第二个乞丐说：“他正向我们走来！”那个男人停了下来，伸手进他的口袋拿了一些东西出来，看起来像是用白纸包着的硬糖。男人分别把“硬糖”放到他们面前的帽子里，一人一块。然后就转身继续赶路了。

“他可以随便给点硬币或钞票给我们，但是他却用一块硬糖来嘲笑我们。”第一个乞丐说。他看着那块“硬糖”生气地继续说道：“我们根本吃不了它，因为我们已经没有牙齿了。”说完，他就把那块“硬糖”捡起来扔掉了，然后收拾好自己的东西离开了。

第二个乞丐想做同样的事情，但是思考片刻后他改变了主意。“我很久没有这样的东西了”，他想。“给我糖果的那个人真好啊！”想着他就打开了那层白纸。出乎意料，里面装着的并不是硬糖，相反，一颗价值数千美元的闪闪发光白珍珠落入他的手中。