提 要

兩則小故事「螞蟻與鴿子」以及「狐狸與葡萄」。「螞蟻與鴿子」說的是「螞蟻報恩」；「狐狸與葡萄」說的則是「酸葡萄」心理。故事雖簡單，卻足以發人深省。

The Ant and the Dove

One hot day, an ant was searching for some water. After walking around for some time, she came to a spring. To reach the spring, she had to climb up a blade of grass. While making her way up, she slipped and fell into the water.

She could have drowned if a dove up a nearby tree had not seen her. Seeing that the ant was in trouble, the dove quickly plucked a leaf and dropped it into the water near the struggling ant. The ant moved towards the leaf and climbed up onto it. Soon, the leaf drifted to dry ground, and the ant jumped out. She was safe at last.

Just at that time, a hunter nearby was about to throw his net over the dove, hoping to trap it.

Guessing what he was about to do, the ant quickly bit him on the heel. Feeling the pain, the hunter dropped his net. The dove was quick to fly away to safety.

One good turn begets another.

The Fox and the Grapes

One afternoon, a fox was walking through the forest and spotted a bunch of grapes hanging from a lofty branch. "Just the thing to quench my thirst," said the fox.

Taking a few steps back, the fox jumped and just missed the hanging grapes. Again, the fox took a few paces back and tried to reach them, but still failed.

Finally, giving up, the fox turned up his nose and said, "They're probably sour anyway." Then he walked away.

It is easy to despise what you cannot have.

解說

螞蟻與鴿子

一個炎熱的日子，一隻螞蟻想找些水喝。 走了一段時間後，她發現了泉水。 想喝到泉水，她必須爬上一根草的葉片， 在往前靠近的時候一個不留神，她滑落到水中了。

要不是附近一棵樹上的鴿子看見她，螞蟻可能就淹死了。看到螞蟻有麻煩，鴿子迅速拔下一片葉子，把它扔到螞蟻附近的水裡。螞蟻「游」向葉子、爬上去。 沒多久，葉子就飄流到了乾地，螞蟻順勢跳下來。她終於安全了。

就在那個時候，附近的一個獵人正準備把網子罩住鴿子，希望能夠逮到牠。

猜到他的企圖，螞蟻迅速地對著獵人的腳跟咬了一口。 感覺到疼痛，獵人鬆掉了網，鴿子很快地飛向安全地帶。

一件善行，引發善的循環。

★「螞蟻報恩」是古代民間故事，敘述一位秀才進京趕考，途中發現很多螞蟻銜著食物在溪邊團團轉，他撿了一片大樹葉橫在小溪上做橋讓螞蟻過。後來秀才在京城的試卷上寫錯了「大」字，但有一隻螞蟻趴在「大」字的上面，把「大」字變成正確的「太」字，而且考官去趕，牠竟然也不走。

狐狸和葡萄

一天下午，一隻狐狸正在森林裡散步，發現一大叢葡萄高高掛在一樹枝上。 狐狸說：「這正好幫我解渴。」

往後退了幾步……狐狸跳了起來，差那麼一點點就碰到懸掛的葡萄了。狐狸再退了幾步，奮力想抓住葡萄，但還是失敗了。

最後，放棄了的狐狸抬起鼻子說：「反正這些葡萄應該很酸。」然後就走開了。

不能擁有，很容易產生鄙視的心態。

★滿有名的「酸葡萄」心理，是認為自己得不到的或是沒有的東西就不好，是不值得關注和爭取的，藉以沖淡內心欲望和不安；換個角度正面思考的「甜檸檬」心理，則強調自己所擁有的東西都是值得珍惜的。如果狐狸吃不到葡萄，找到了一個檸檬，於是自我安慰：「這檸檬正合口味，我的檸檬挺甜的。」用這種精神勝利法承認、接受現實，比垂頭喪氣好多了。