He was 11 and went fishing every chance hegot from the dock at his family’s cabin.

On the day before the bass season opened，he and his father were fishing early in the eve-ning. Then he tied on a small silver lure and prac-ticed casting. When his peapole doubled over， heknew something huge was on the other end. Hisfather watched with admiration as the boy skillful-ly worked the fish alongside the dock.

Finally， he lifted the exhausted fish from thewater. It was the largest one he had ever seen， butit was a bass.

The father lit a match and looked at hiswatch. It was 10 P.M.—two hours before the sea-son opened. He looked at the fish， then at the boy.

“You’ll have to put it back， son.”he said.

“Dad！”cried the boy.

“There will be other fish，”said his father.

“Not as big as this one，”cried the boy.

He looked around the lake. No others wereanywhere around in the moonlight. He lookedagain at his father. Even though no one had seenthem， nor could anyone ever know what time hecaught the fish， the boy could tell by the clarity ofhis father’s voice that the decision was not nego-tiable. He slowly worked the hook out of the lipof the huge bass and lowered it into the black wa-ter. The boy suspected that he would never againsee such a great fish.

Thatwas34yearsago.Today，theboyisasuc-cessful architect in New York City. He takes hisownsonanddaughtersfishingfromthesamedock.

And he was right. He has never again caught such a magnificent fish as the one he landed thatnight long ago. But he does see that same fish—again and again—every time he comes up againsta question of ethics.

For， as his father taught him， ethics are sim-ple matters of right and wrong. It is only the prac-tice of ethics that is difficult. Do we do rightwhen no one is looking？ Do we refuse to cut cor-ners to get the design in on time？We would if we were taught to put the fishback when we were young. For we would havelearned the truth. The decision to do right livesfresh and fragrant in our memory.

It is a story we will proudly tell our friends.

Not about how we had a chance to beat the ruleand took it，but about how we did the right thingand were forever strengthened.

他11歲那年，只要一有機(jī)會(huì)，就會(huì)到他家小屋的碼頭上釣魚(yú)。

鱸魚(yú)季節(jié)開(kāi)放的前一天晚上，他和父親早早開(kāi)始垂釣。他系上魚(yú)餌，練習(xí)如何拋線。當(dāng)魚(yú)桿向下彎的時(shí)候，他知道線的另一端一定釣到了一條大魚(yú)。父親看著他技巧純熟地在碼頭邊沿和魚(yú)周旋，眼神充滿贊賞。

最后他將筋疲力盡的魚(yú)提出水面。

這是他所見(jiàn)過(guò)的最大的一條，卻是一條鱸魚(yú)。

父親點(diǎn)燃了一根火柴，看了看表。晚上十點(diǎn)了 — —離開(kāi)禁還有兩個(gè)小時(shí)。他看了看魚(yú)，又看了看男孩。

“你得把它放回去，孩子?！备赣H說(shuō)道。

“爸爸！”男孩叫道。

“還有其他的魚(yú)嘛。”父親說(shuō)道。

“但沒(méi)這么大?！蹦泻⒔械?。

男孩環(huán)視了一遍湖。月光下，附近沒(méi)有其他人。他又看了看他父親。從父親不可動(dòng)搖的語(yǔ)氣中，他知道這個(gè)決定沒(méi)有商量余地，即使沒(méi)有人看到他們，更無(wú)從得知他們何時(shí)釣到了魚(yú)。他慢慢地將魚(yú)鉤從大鱸魚(yú)的唇上取下，然后蹲下將魚(yú)放回水中。男孩想，他可能再也看不到這么大的魚(yú)了。

那是34年前的事了。現(xiàn)在，男孩是紐約的一個(gè)成功的建筑師，他帶著自己的兒女仍然在同一個(gè)碼頭上釣魚(yú)。

他猜得沒(méi)錯(cuò)。自那次以后，他再也沒(méi)有釣上過(guò)那么大的魚(yú)了。但每次他面臨道德難題而舉棋不定的時(shí)候，他的眼前就會(huì)再三浮現(xiàn)出那條魚(yú)。

他父親曾告訴他，道德即是簡(jiǎn)單的對(duì)和錯(cuò)的問(wèn)題，但要付諸行動(dòng)卻很難。在沒(méi)人瞧見(jiàn)的時(shí)候，我們是否仍遵循道德準(zhǔn)則？為了將圖紙按時(shí)完成，我們是不是也會(huì)走捷徑？

在我們還小的時(shí)候，如果有人教導(dǎo)我們把魚(yú)放回去，我們會(huì)這樣做，因?yàn)槲覀冞€在學(xué)習(xí)真理。正確的決定在我們的記憶里變得深刻而清晰。

這個(gè)故事我們可以驕傲地講給朋友聽(tīng)，不是關(guān)于如何攻擊和戰(zhàn)勝某種規(guī)則，而是如何做正確的決定，從而變得無(wú)比堅(jiān)強(qiáng)。