在边境车站

A train stopped at a French border station. Thepassengers opened their trunks, and waited for theinspection of their things. One of the passengers infirst-class carriage took a lot of boxes of cigarettesout of his trunk and wanted to put all of them intohis pockets.

一列火车停在法国边境车站。旅客们都打开自己的皮箱，等待检查。头等车厢的一个乘客从他的皮箱里拿出许多盒香烟，想把它们全部装进自己的口袋。

When his pockets were already full of cigarettes and he could not put any more into them, hesaid to another man who was at the window:

他的口袋已经装满了香烟，再也装不进去了，他就对坐在窗口的一个人说：

"Will you please take some of these boxes and put them into your pockets?"

“请你拿上几盒烟放到你口袋里好吗?”

"Why don't you leave them in your trunk?" asked the other passenger.

“你为什么不放在皮箱里呢?”那个乘客问道。

"Because I don't want to pay duty on them," answered the first passenger.

“因为我不想交税。”第一个乘客说。

"All right," said the passenger at the window. "Give them to me. But I must tell you now that Ishall not return them to you."

“好吧，”窗口的那个乘客说，“把它们给我。可是我现在必须告诉你，我不会还你了。”

"Why?"

“为什么?”

"Because I am a French customs officer."

“因为我是法国海关官员。”