Word had spread2 that there were thieves in the garden. Mr. Beetle3 wasafraid that his house would be next， because everybody knew he had just finishedgathering4 a lot of food for the year.

That day he started to watch outside the window of his house. Using aspyglass5， he watched everything that moved. He saw a dangerous black spiderand a pretty ladybird get closer at the same time. The beetle would like to go andspeak to the ladybird， but he had to protect6 his house from the spider. Thespider came closer so， plucking7 up all his courage， he went out to the front doorto face up to him.

It took a while to drive him off， but at last the beetle went backtriumphantly8 to his house， only to find that the door was open and all his foodhad gone. When he walked outside again， he had just enough time to see theladybird making off with all the food and flying away.

Feeling unhappy， he went to report it to the garden police. They told himthat they had thought he might be next and so had sent the best police—a spiderwho had arrived to help him not long ago.

That spider he drove away was the police？ That’s how the beetle learned not to judge9 others by their appearance.

花園里有小偷的消息已經(jīng)傳開了。甲殼蟲先生擔(dān)心它的房子會(huì)成為下一個(gè)目標(biāo)，因?yàn)槊總€(gè)人都知道它剛剛為這一年收集了很多食物。

那天，它開始在它家窗外觀察。它用小望遠(yuǎn)鏡觀察一切移動(dòng)的東西，同時(shí)看到一只看起來很危險(xiǎn)的黑蜘蛛和一只漂亮的瓢蟲離自己越來越近。甲殼蟲很想去和瓢蟲說話，但是它必須保護(hù)自己的房子免受那只蜘蛛的侵害。那只蜘蛛越來越近，于是它鼓起所有的勇氣，走到前門勇敢地和它對(duì)峙。

甲殼蟲花了些時(shí)間才把它趕走，但最后當(dāng)甲殼蟲勝利地回到自己家以后，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)門開著，它所有的食物都不見了。當(dāng)它再次走到外面時(shí)，它只來得及看到瓢蟲帶著自家所有的食物飛走了。

它很不高興，就到花園警察那兒報(bào)了案。警察告訴它，之前它們認(rèn)為它家可能是小偷下一個(gè)目標(biāo)，所以派出了最好的一位警察———蜘蛛，它不久前已趕去幫忙。

被它趕走的那只蜘蛛是警察？甲殼蟲就是這樣學(xué)會(huì)不要以貌取人的。