Paulo Coelho

在與老人的交談中，牧羊少年發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)天大的陰謀。 這個(gè)陰謀是什么呢？

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People say strange things, the boy thought.Sometimes it's better to be with the sheep, who don't say anything. And better still to be alone with one's books. They tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them. But when you're talking to people, they say some things that are so strange that you don't know how to continue the conversation.

“My name is Melchizedek,” said the old man. “How many sheep do you have?”

“Enough,” said the boy. He could see that the old man wanted to know more about his life.

“Well, then, we've got a problem. I can't help you if you feel you've got enough sheep.”

The boy was getting irritated （惱怒）. He wasn't asking for help. It was the old man who had asked for a drink of his wine, and had started the conversation.

“Give me my book,” the boy said. “I have to go and gather my sheep and get going.”

“Give me one tenth of your sheep,” said the old man, “and I'll tell you how to find the hidden treasure.”

The boy remembered his dream, and suddenly everything was clear to him. The old woman hadn't charged him anything, but the old man—maybe he was her husband—was going to find a way to get much more money in exchange for information about something that didn't even exist. The old man was probably a Gypsy, too.

But before the boy could say anything, the old man leaned over, picked up a stick, and began to write in the sand of the plaza. Something bright reflected from his chest with such intensity that the boy was momentarily blinded. With a movement that was too quick for someone his age, the man covered whatever it was with his cape. When his vision returned to normal, the boy was able to read what the old man had written in the sand.

There, in the sand of the plaza of that small city, the boy read the names of his father and his mother and the name of the seminary he had attended. He read the name of the merchant's daughter, which he hadn't even known, and he read things he had never told anyone.

Reading Check

What scheme did the shepherd think the old man was going to hatch?

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