ALLEN: Oh, my God! I've been cheated!
SARAH: What? What did you buy?
ALLEN: It's a brick! I can't believe how stupid I was. Damn it!
SARAH: What is it? Why did you buy a brick?
ALLEN: There was a guy on the sidewalk.He had three new boxes, Panasonic video camera boxes.He said he had to get rid of them quick.
SARAH: And?
ALLEN: So he said he'd sell me one for twenty dollars.A four-hundred-dollar camera for twenty bucks.
SARAH: And it's a brick?
ALLEN: Yes.
SARAH: I can't believe how stupid you are. Why didn't you open the box?
ALLEN: I wanted to. But he said, no, the box is still in its plastic wrap from the store.If it's opened, other people won't believe it's new.
SARAH: So he had the boxes wrapped in plastic.
ALLEN: Yes, it was the kind of perfect plastic wrap that comes with new products.Look, it even had a bar-code price sticker on it! It looked brand new.
SARAH: But why would a guy be selling new video cameras for twenty dollars?
ALLEN: He said he had to get rid of them. They were stolen.
SARAH: Aha! Now I understand.You were trying to buy stolen goods on the sidewalk.So, what I think is, you deserve to get cheated!
ALLEN: C'mon, don't blame me!I thought it was a new camera. We could use it.We were even thinking about buying a camera.I don't understand how he could have such a perfect-looking box.
SARAH: That's no problem.He just has a friend who works in a shop that can do plastic wrap. That's easy.And probably it's the same shop he got the boxes from.Maybe his friend works in an electronics store. They sell video cameras there.Probably they had a couple video camera boxes lying around.So they get the idea of wrapping bricks to sell to fools like you.Twenty dollars a brick. That's a good profit if they can sell enough bricks.
ALLEN: You're right, Sarah.I was a fool. I can't believe it. How could I fall for such a trick?
艾伦：天啊！我被骗了。
莎拉：什么？你买了什么？
艾伦：砖头！我不相信我竟然这么笨，该死！
莎拉：怎么了？为什么你买砖头？
艾伦：人行道上有一个人，他有三个盒子，松下牌摄影机的盒子，他说急着脱手。
莎拉：然后呢？
艾伦：所以他卖我一台二十美元。四百美元的摄像机卖二十美元。
莎拉：然后发现它是一块砖头？
艾伦：是的。
莎拉：我不敢相信你这么笨，你为什么不打开盒子呢？
艾伦：我想啊，可是他说不行。盒子还是从商店拿出来的塑胶包装，如果开了，别人不会相信是新的。
莎拉：所以他把盒子用塑胶包装起来。
艾伦：没错，就像是新产品的完整包装那样。你看，上面甚至还有价格条码贴纸，看起来是全新的。
莎拉：不过为什么有人会卖二十美元一台的新摄影机？
艾伦：他说他必须脱手，这是偷来的。
莎拉：哈！现在我懂了。你是要买人行道上的赃物，我认为你活该被骗。
艾伦：拜托，别责怪我了！我以为是新的，我们可以用。我们想过要买一台录像机的。我不懂他怎么会有外观如此完整的盒子。
莎拉：这不成问题。他只要有朋友在塑胶包装公司工作，那很容易。而且可能就是他拿盒子的同一家公司。也许他朋友在电器店工作，那里有卖摄影机，可能他们随身有几个摄影机的盒子，就想出包装砖头的点子来卖给你这种傻瓜。一块砖头二十美元，如果他们卖的砖头够多，这是一笔不错的利润。
艾伦：莎拉，你是对的。我是傻瓜，我真不敢相信，我怎么会上这种当。 |