George was a planter who liked playing jokes. On Christmas Eve, feeling that his cautious and conscientious butler deserved rewards, he patted the butler Jack's shoulder and said, “There are four large bowls of porridge here. I put two gold coins at the bottom of one bowl among these four. Dear Jack, let's see if you're lucky or not.”
Jack was eager for the gold coins, but not sure in which bowl they were put. He hesitantly drank some porridge in the first bowl. Suddenly, he felt the gold coins should be in the second bowl, so he turned to it and tried half porridge in this bowl. Still not resigned in his mind, he drank some porridge in the third one. At last, he changed his mind. He struggled to drink half of the porridge in the fourth with much difficulty — at this moment Jack felt his stomach had been fully occupied.
As a result, he didn't get even one gold coin.
Virtually, George placed two coins at the bottom of each bowl. As long as Jack finished up any bowl of this delicious porridge, he would have got the gold coins he had longed for.
乔治是个种植园主，很爱开玩笑。圣诞前夜这天，他觉得有必要奖励一下细致谨慎、认真负责的男管家杰克，就拍了拍杰克的肩膀说：“这儿有四大碗粥。我在其中一碗的碗底放了两枚金币。杰克，咱们一起看看你的运气如何吧。”
杰克很想要金币，可他没法确定是哪个碗。只见他犹豫不决地喝下了第一个碗里的几口粥。突然，他感觉金币应该是在第二个碗里，于是就走过去喝下了一半。这时，他还是不想放弃，就喝了第三碗里的几口。最后，杰克改变了主意，硬是坚持喝下了第四碗里的半碗粥——这时，杰克的胃里已经连半口粥也装不下了。
结果，他一个金币也没拿到。
其实，乔治在每个碗的碗底都放了两枚金币。只要杰克喝光其中任何一碗美味小粥，他都能拿到梦寐以求的金币。
-butler [ˈbʌtlə(r)] n. 男管家
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