The Importance of Being Honest

In the busy city of New York, such an astonishing thing that ever happened.

On a Friday night, a poor young artist stood at the gate of the subway station, playing his violin. Though the music was great, people were quickly going home for the weekend. In this case, many of them slowed down their paces and put some money into the hat of the young man.

The next day, the young artist came to the gate of the subway station, and put his hat on the ground gracefully. Different than the day before, he took out a large piece of paper and laid it on the ground and put some stones on it. Then he adjusted the violin and began playing. It seemed more pleasant to listen to.

Before long, the young violinist was surrounded with people, who were all attracted by the words on that paper. It said, “Last night, a gentleman named George Sang put an important thing into my hat by mistaken. Please come to claim it soon.”

Seeing this, it caused a great excitement and people wondered what it could be. After about half an hour, a middle-aged man ran there in a hurry and rushed through the crowd to the violinist and grabbed his shoulders and said, “Yes, it’s you. You did come here. I knew that you’re an honest man and would certainly come here.”

The young violinist asked calmly, “Are you Mr. George Sang?”

The man nodded. The violinist asked, “Did you lose something?”

“Lottery. It’s lottery,” said the man.

The violinist took out a lottery ticket on which George Sang’s name was seen. “Is it?” he asked.

George nodded promptly and seized the lottery ticket and kissed it, then he danced with the violinist.

The story turned out to be this: George Sang is an office clerk. He bought a lottery ticket issued by a bank a few days ago. The awards opened yesterday and he won a prize of $500,000. So he felt very happy after work and felt the music was so wonderful, that he took out 50 dollars and put in the hat. However the lottery ticket was also thrown in. The violinist was a student at an Arts College and had planned to attend advanced studies in Vienna. He had booked the ticket and would fly that morning. However when he was cleaning up he found the lottery ticket. Thinking that the owner would return to look for it, he cancelled the flight and came back to where he was given the lottery ticket.

Later someone asked the violinist: “At that time you were in needed to pay the tuition fee and you had to play the violin in the subway station every day to make the money. Then why didn’t you take the lottery ticket for yourself?”

The violinist said, “Although I don’t have much money, I live happily; but if I lose honesty I won’t be happy forever.”

Through our lives, we can gain a lot and lose so much. But being honest should always be with us. If we bear ourselves in a deceptive and dishonest way, we may succeed temporarily. However, from the long-term view, we will be a loser. Such kind of people are just like the water on the mountain. It stands high above the masses at the beginning, but gradually it comes down inch by inch and loses the chance of going up.

在繁華的紐約，曾經發生了這樣一件震撼人心的事情。

星期五的傍晚，一個貧窮的年輕藝人仍然像往常一樣站在地鐵站門口，專心致志地拉著他的小提琴。琴聲優美動聽，雖然人們都急急忙忙地趕著回家過周末，但還是有很多人情不自禁的放慢了腳步，時不時地會有一些人在年輕藝人跟前的禮帽里放一些錢。

第二天黃昏，年輕的藝人又像往常一樣準時來到地鐵門口，把他的禮帽摘下來很優雅地放在地上。和以往不同的是，他還從包里拿出一張大紙，然后很認真地鋪在地上，四周還用自備的小石塊壓上。做完這一切以后，他調試好小提琴，又開始了演奏，聲音似乎比以前更動聽更悠揚。

不久，年輕的小提琴手周圍站滿了人，人們都被鋪在地上的那張大紙上的字吸引了，有的人還踮起腳尖看。上面寫著：“昨天傍晚，有一位叫喬治•桑的先生錯將一份很重要的東西放在我的禮帽里，請您速來認領。”

見此情景，人群之間引起一陣騷動，都想知道這是一份什么樣的東西。過了半小時左右，一位中年男人急急忙忙跑過來，撥開人群就沖到小提琴手面前，抓住他的肩膀語無倫次的說：“啊!是您呀，您真的來了，我就知道您是個誠實的人，您一定會來的。”

年輕的小提琴手冷靜地問：“您是喬治•桑先生嗎?”

那人連忙點頭。小提琴手又問：“您遺落了什么東西嗎?”

那位先生說：“獎票，獎票”。

小提琴手于是掏出一張獎票，上面還醒目地寫著喬治•桑，小提琴手舉著彩票問：“是這個嗎?”

喬治•桑迅速地點點頭，搶過獎票吻了一下，然后又抱著小提琴手在地上跳起了舞。

原來事情是這樣的，喬治•桑是一家公司的小職員，他前些日子買了一張一家銀行發行的獎票，昨天上午開獎，他中了50萬美元的獎金。昨天下班，他心情很好，覺得音樂也特別美妙，于是就從錢包里掏出50美元，放在了禮帽里，可是不小心把獎票也扔了進去。小提琴手是一名藝術學院的學生，本來打算去維也納進修，已經定好了機票，時間就在今天上午，可是他昨天整理東西時發現了這張獎票，想到失主會來找，于是今天就退掉了機票，又準時來到這里。

后來，有人問小提琴手：“你當時那么需要一筆學費，為了賺夠這筆學費，你不得不每天到地鐵站拉提琴。那你為什么不把那50萬元的獎票留下呢?”

小提琴手說：“雖然我沒錢，但我活得很快樂;假如我沒了誠信，我一天也不會快樂。”

在人的一生中，我們會得到許多，也會失去許多，但守信用卻應是始終陪伴我們的。如果以虛偽、不誠實的方式為人處世，也許能獲得暫時的“成功”，但從長遠看，他最終是個失敗者。這種人就像山上的水，剛開始的時候，是高高在上，但逐漸逐漸地它就越來越下降，再沒有一個上升的機會。