寓言故事|山泉与金沙

A small mountain spring ran tinkling^{1 down the narrow stone crevices3. Many years passed. An egg-sized shallow hole was washed out on the rock. Strangely, the mountain spring anyhow brought some bright yellow gold sand and got to fill the small hole.
One day, an old woodcutter hit on this secret. To his amazement4, he cupped the gold sand carefully.
Since then, the old man furtively5 fetched the gold sand once every half a month or so, so he became rich soon.
When discovering his father's secret, his son advised:If they widened the stone crevice2 for more mountian spring, more gold sand could be washed here. The old man thought it over and felt it advisable. So the father and son chiseled6 the narrow stone crevise so widely that the mountain spring was several times than ever. But unexpectedly, the gold sand didn't increase but disappeared ever since.
They felt puzzled: Where had the gold sand gone?
一股细细的山泉沿着窄窄的石缝叮叮咚咚往下流淌，也不了解过了多少年，居然在岩石上冲刷出一个鸡蛋大小的浅坑。奇异的是，山泉不知从哪儿冲来黄澄澄的金砂，日渐的填满了小坑。
有一天，一位砍柴的老汉偶然发现了这个秘密，惊喜之下，他小心翼翼的捧走了金砂。
从此，老汉过个十天半月就偷偷来取一次金砂，日子非常快富裕起来。
老汉的儿子发现了爸爸的秘密，他建议：拓宽石缝，扩大山泉，不是能冲来更多的金砂吗？老汉想了想，感觉有理，父子两个把窄窄的石缝拓宽了，山泉比原来大了几倍，哪个知金砂不但没增多，反而从此消失的不见踪影。
父子两个百思不能其解：金砂到哪儿去了呢？}