Mary and her husband Dimitri lived in the tiny village of Perachora in southern GREece. One of Mary's prize possessions was a little white lamb which her husband had given her. She kept it tied to a tree in a field during the day and went to fetch it every evening. One evening, however, the lamb was missing. The rope had been cut, so it was obvious that the lamb had been stolen.

    When Dimitri came in from the fields, His wife told him what had happened. Dimitri at once set out to find the thief. He knew it would not prove difficult in such a small village. After telling several of his friends about the theft, Dimitri found out that his neighbour, Aleko, had suddenly acquired a new lamb. Dimitri immediately went to Aleko's house and angrily accused him of stealing the lamb. He told him he had better return it or he would call the police. Aleko denied taking it and led Dimitri into his back-yard. It was true that he had just bought a lamb, he explained, but his lamb was black. Ashamed of having acted so rashly, Dimitri apologized to Aleko for having accused him. While they were talking it began to rain and Dimitri stayed in Aleko's house until the rain stopped. When he went outside half an hour later, he was astonished to find that the little black lamb was almost white. Its wool, which had been dyed black, had been washed clean by the rain !  

    瑪麗與丈夫迪米特里住在希臘南部一個叫波拉考拉的小村莊里�，旣愖钫滟F的財產(chǎn)之一就是丈夫送給她的一只白色小羔羊。白天，瑪麗把羔羊拴在地里的一棵樹上。每天晚上把它牽回家�？墒牵�一天晚上，那只小羔羊失蹤了。繩子被人割斷，很明顯小羔羊是被人偷走了。

    迪米特里從地里回來，妻子把情況跟他一說，他馬上出去找偷羔羊的人。他知道在這樣一個小村莊里抓住小偷并不困難。把失竊的事告訴幾個朋友后，迪米特里發(fā)現(xiàn)他的鄰居阿列科家突然多了一只小羔羊。迪米特里立刻去了阿列科家，氣呼呼地指責他偷了羔羊，告訴他最好把羊交還，否則就去叫警察。阿列科不承認，并把迪米特里領進院子。不錯，他的確剛買了一只羔羊，阿列科解釋說，但他的羔羊是黑色的。迪米特里為自己的魯莽而感到不好意思，向阿列科道了歉，說是錯怪了他。就在他倆說話的時候，天下起了雨，迪米特里便呆在阿列科家里避雨，一直等到雨停為止。半小時后，當他從屋里出來時，他驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)小黑羔羊全身幾乎都變成了白色。原來羊毛上染的黑色被雨水沖掉了