Once upon a time a man had a big house, and in the house there was a big oven; but this man's family was small — only himself and his wife.
When winter came, the man tried to keep his oven going all day, so that the entire stock of his firewood was consumed in a month. Now, with nothing to feed the fire, it was cold in the house.
Then the man began to break up his fences, and use the boards for fuel. When he had burnt up all of his fences, the house, now without any protection against the wind, was colder than ever, and still they had no firewood.
Then the man began to tear down the ceiling of his house, and burn that in the oven. A neighbor noticed that he was tearing down his ceiling, and said to him: “Why, neighbor, have you lost your mind, pulling down your ceiling in winter? You and your wife will freeze to death!”
But the man said: “No, brother, you see I am pulling down my ceiling so as to have something to heat my oven with. We have such a curious one; the more I heat it up, the colder we are!”
The neighbor laughed, and said, “Well, then, after you have burnt up your ceiling, then you will be tearing down your house. You won't have anywhere to live; only the oven will be left, and even that will be cold!”
“Well, that is my misfortune,” said the man. “All my neighbours have enough firewood for all winter; but I have already burnt up my fences and the ceiling of my house, and have nothing left.”
The neighbor replied: “All you need is to have your oven rebuilt.”
But the man said: “I know well that you are jealous of my house and my oven because they are larger than yours, and so you advise me to rebuild it.”
So he turned a deaf ear to his neighbour's advice, and burnt up his ceiling, then his whole house, and in the end had to go and live with strangers.
从前，一个人有间大房子，房子里有个大火炉，家人却不多，只有他和妻子相依为命。
到了冬天，男主人想让火炉的火整天烧着不灭，于是一个月就烧光了家里所有的柴火。现在，没东西烧火了，房子里开始冷了。
于是，他开始拆篱笆，拿围成篱笆的木板当燃料烧。烧完了篱笆，房子连个挡风的东西都没有了，比以往还冷，这下他们又没有柴火烧了。
然后，男主人开始拆房顶，烧火用。一个邻居见状，对他说：“喂，邻居，你疯了吗？大冬天的拆了房顶？你和你老婆还不得冻死啊！”
可他却说：“不，哥们儿，你看呀，拆了房顶，我的火炉里就有柴火烧了。我家的火炉真是奇了怪了，烧得越旺，屋里越冷！”
邻居笑道：“那好吧，烧完房顶你就该拆房子了。到时候没地方住，就守着个火炉，那才冷呢！”
“那就是我的运气不好了。”他说：“所有的邻居在冬天柴火都够烧，我却已经把篱笆和房顶都拆掉烧光了，现在一无所有了。”
邻居回答道：“现在你要做的应该是找人重做一个火炉。”
这人却说：“你居然让我重做火炉，别以为我不知道你这是嫉妒我家的房子和火炉都比你家的大！”
于是他把邻居的话当成了耳旁风，还是烧了拆下来的房顶，后来连整个房子都烧光了。最后不得不去和陌生人住在一起。
-stock [stɒk] n. 库存
“拆东墙，补西墙”永远不是解决问题的正确方法。