Jill Jones got a new job in a different part of the city. She
had to go to work every day by train.
  There was only one other person on the train
with her. He was a welldressed man reading a newspaper.
  Suddenly, about halfway through the journey, the man
began tearing his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces.
  Then he picked them up, opened the window and threw them all out.
  This done, he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the
rest of the journey.
  The next day, Jill got on the same train. The same welldressed
man was there, reading a newspaper.
  As before, about halfway through the journey, the man
began tearing his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces.
Then he picked the pieces up, opened the window and threw them all out.
  When it was, he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for
the rest of the journey.
  This happened every day for a week.
  At last, on Friday, Jill spoke to the man.
  “Excuse me, sir,” she said, “I don’t want to be rude, but
I must ask you a question. When we are halfway through our
journey, you tear your newspaper into hundreds of pieces and
then throw them all out of the window. Please tell me, sir. Why
do you do this?”
  The well-dressed man smiled. “There’s a simple reason,”
he said. “I like to sleep for part of the journey, but I cannot sleep
if the train is full of elephants. So I throw the pieces of paper out
to the elephants. It stops them from coming into the train.”
  “But there aren’t any elephants on the train,” Jill said.
  “I know,” the man said. “It works well, doesn't it?”

                没有大象
  吉尔·琼斯在城市的另一边找到了一份工作。她每天必须坐火车去上班。
  火车上只有两个人。除了她，还有一个衣着考究的人正在读报。
  坐到半路时，那人突然开始把报纸撕成了碎片。
  然后他把碎片拾起来，打开窗户扔了出去。
  接着，他坐下来，把眼睛闭上开始睡觉。
  第二天，吉尔又乘坐同一列火车，那个衣着考究的人仍在读报。
  就像上次那样，半路时，那人又开始把报纸撕成碎片，拾起来，打开窗
户扔出去。
  然后又坐下，闭上眼睛睡觉。
  整整一周他都重复着这样的动作。
  最后，周五那天，吉尔跟他攀谈起来。
  “打扰了，先生，”她说，“我本不想如此鲁莽，但就想问个明白。为
何你每天半路时就撕碎报纸，然后扔到窗外，能告诉我原因吗，先生？”
  衣着考究的绅士笑了笑。“原因非常简单，”他说，“我想在接下来的
旅途中睡上一觉，如果火车里都是大象的话，我睡不着。于是我就把报纸屑
扔出窗外，这样大象就不会上火车了。”
  “但火车上并没有大象啊，”吉尔说。
  “我知道啊，”他说，“这不正说明我的做法奏效了吗？”