阅读理解
Ray's wedding had gone off smoothly.
Everyone seemed to have had a good time. A few people had too good a time; they
went home with designated (指派的) drivers. All evening, the gift table
remained unguarded. Who would steal anything, Ray thought. He had never heard
of such a thing happening at a wedding. But his best friend Aaron said there
was a first time for everything. He strolled out regularly from the inside
festivities (庆祝)
to check on the gift table, making sure no one suspicious was hanging around
it.
Ray and Julia went on a 3-week honeymoon to
Italy right after the wedding. When they got back, they opened all the gifts
and sent out thank-you notes. But there was one problem. A married couple that
used to be good friends had apparently given nothing. This surprised Julia,
because Walt and Mary said they were thrilled to be invited. And, they actually
seemed to have had a great time at the wedding. Frankly, Ray didn't even care
if they hadn't given a gift. He just needed to know whether to send a thank-you
note. Ray called Aaron. Aaron said maybe Walt had left an envelope on the gift
table like Aaron had. "Yes, but we got your envelope with the cash inside,"
Ray said. "Maybe my envelope looked too thin, and some thief thought Walt's
envelope looked nice and fat."
Aaron asked Ray if he had looked everywhere
for Walt's gift. Had he called up the wedding site to see if anything had been
left behind? Ray said that he had looked everywhere and made a lot of calls
that were fruitless.
Ray didn't know what to do. If he sent Walt
and Mary a thank-you note for a gift they hadn't given, they would be insulted.
If he didn't send them a thank-you note for a gift they had given, they would
get angry.
"What would you do?" Ray asked.
Aaron said he would call Walt up and tell him the problem.
"You can't go wrong with simply being
honest," Aaron said.
"Oh, yes, you can," Ray
contradicted (反驳)
him. "Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie." But he thought
about it, and finally decided that Aaron was right. He called Walt and told him
the problem. Walt said that yes, he had given an envelope. In fact, the
envelope contained $500 cash.
"$500?!" Ray asked. "That's
a lot of cash, Walt!" Walt admitted that it was, but he had gotten a fat
raise (加薪) early that year and Ray's was the
only wedding he'd been to in quite a while. Ray thanked him very much, and
apologized sincerely for someone stealing Walt's generous gift. Walt told him
that it was "only money".
When Ray told Aaron about Walt's gift,
Aaron laughed. "The only thief at the wedding was Walt! I quit playing
cards with him last year because I caught him cheating. And it was only a $10
pot! I'm sure I told you about that."
"Yes, you did tell me," Ray said.
But, of course, he had to send Walt a thank-you note anyway.
