퍼옴 All Those Noughts.

[린네아]

읽다가 너무 재미있어서 옮겨 적었습니다.

함 읽어보세요.

Sulo was a man that everybody noticed. He was a big man. He had the fat smooth face of a man who ate very well. He had wonderful head of white hair. You knew he was someone important. And his clothes told you that he was a rich man. But he had not always been rich. He came from a poor family. He was Latvian or Estonian (nobody really knows: he had several passports which said he was Greek or Brazilian). He decided that he wanted to make money, and became very good at it. Before he was twenty, he had his own ‘Import and Export’ business in Rio, with branches in several other countries. He had two ‘sayings. The first was: Buy cheap and sell dear’. The second was: Never look back’.

Yes, Sulo was rich- and dishonest. He often bought stolen goods at a low price and sold them at a high price. He used cash, never signed anything, and never paid taxes. As he left his Zurich hotel in a taxi to go to the airport, he patted the briefcase on his lap. What people would say, he thought, if they knew I had a million dollars in this briefcase! A million US dollars. He thought of their pretty green colors, of their pictures of the U S Presidents and he thought of the number. All those noughts: US$1,000,000. Six beautiful noughts! Beautiful! He held the briefcase close to his body. Tonight, he thought, this money will be in a safe in Amsterdam. Sulo felt good.

Yanni was a man that nobody noticed. He was small and thin. He did not look important. Nobody could ever remember his face. Yanni was Mr. Nobody, always overlooked: he was invisible. He had Swiss identity, but he came from a anther country, Latvia or Estonia perhaps. He came from a poor family. When he was older, Yanni was glad that he was ’invisible’, because it was useful for his work. His work? Yanni was a thief. And he was very good at it. Before he was twenty, he came to Zurich and got Swiss papers (nobody knows how). He became a specialist in picking pockets and stealing purses from handbags. He had only one saying: ‘Little and often’.

He used to spend a lot of time at the main railway station, looking for ‘customers’. Sometimes he liked to walk up Bahnhofstrasse and into one of the big department stores like Globus. Here it was easy to steal purses from open shopping bags. One day, his friend Dix, a specialist in stolen credit cards and foreign money, asked him;

‘Yanni, have you ever thought of trying the airport? There are lots of fat rich tourists there. Much better than the Railway Station, if you ask me.’

So, one day, Yanni took the bus out to the airport and went into departures to see what he could find. At the KLM desk he noticed a big man with a fat and a lovely head of white hear. He noticed that the man was having some trouble with the girl behind the counter. He noticed, too, that the man had put his briefcase the ground. The man was too busy arguing with the girl to think about his case. It would be easy….

Sulo was angry.

‘I booked the flight a week ago. I told your office in town that I would pick my ticket up at the airport today. So where is it?’

‘I’m sorry, sir, but I have no record of the booking. Could you spell your name again?’

‘Really! This is not good enough.’

He spelled out his name to her in the kind of loud slow voice that you use when talking to idiots:

 ‘My name is Sulo. S_U_L_O. Now hurry up or I’ll miss my flight to Amsterdam.’

After some more minutes, the girl finally found Sulo’s booking; it was listed under Solo, an easy mistake to make. She gave Sulo his ticket.

‘if you have only hand luggage, sir, you can go straight through now.’

‘Good. Yes,’ Sulo said; I only have my br…’

He looked down. The briefcase had disappeared. He looked round, his eyes wild. For a moment he thought he was going to faint. His face was white. It wasn’t possible! It just wasn’t possible! He stared at the place where he had put the case down, as if he expected it to reappear. Suddenly, he felt as if he was going to be sick. He had to go to the toilet. Quickly.

While Sulo was arguing at the KLM desk Yanni went downstairs to the toilet. He went into the nearest cubicle and closed the door behind him. He was quite excited. A briefcase could contain all sorts of useful things: a calculator perhaps, or some expensive pens. Or some foreign money. Dix would buy that from him. Or there would be some credit cards. Dix would be happy to take them too.

‘Little and often’. He said to himself, smiling. ‘Steal a little, steal often.’ He began to sing softly, because Yanni was happy in his work, unlike most of people.

He sat on the toilet, put the briefcase on his knees, rubbed his hands and opened the case. He cried out when he saw the piles of green banknotes. Millions and millions of US dollars! He felt afraid. His face went white and he felt sick. Big money like this was big trouble, and he didn’t want any trouble.

‘What shall I do? What shall I do?

He wished that Dix was there to help him. Dix would know what to do.

‘Perhaps I should put it down the toilet.’ he thought. ‘No, that would take a long time. No, just leave it and get out, fast!

He felt angry now. He hated the big man with the fat face and the white hair. Why couldn’t he just carry a few credit cards and a small quantity of cash like normal people? Why didn’t he have something that an honest thief could steal? Not millions and millions of dollars like this. This was stupid. Too much money. No good for anybody. Yanni closed the case and hit the lid with his fists.

‘It’s just not fair!’ he said out loud. He put the briefcase out of sight behind the toilet. He hoped that nobody would find it before he had got away from the airport.

‘Let’s get back to Bahnhofstrasse and steal a few purses, purses that have normal amounts of money in them. A few francs here, a few francs there…’

‘As he went up the stairs, he saw the big man with the white hair coming down, Yanni’s heart stopped. He looked away quickly. Sulo did not even notice him.

Sulo went downstairs and ran into the nearest cubicle. He closed the door and sat on the toilet, his head in his hands.

‘How could I have been so stupid?’ he asked himself. ‘A million dollars! A million dollars! And some dirty little thief has stolen it! Well, if I ever catch him, I’ll kill him. There are thieves everywhere nowadays. The world isn’t safe for decent people any more.’

It was good to get angry. It made him feel better. But not much better. He realized that there was nothing he could do about the lost money. He got up and went put of the cubicle. The briefcase was still behind the toilet, but Sulo did not look back. Sulo never looked back.

[정가네]

저는 능력 부족이옵니다.ㅜㅠ.

[다지]

ㅎㅎㅎ Sulo 쌤통 ㅋㅋ

[미노라]

자기소신이 투철한 웃기는 친구들이군요.^^재미 있습니다.

[더바]

내일 핵교 가서 봐야쥐... 바로 옆에 영어샘이 계시니..^^

[더바]

다 읽어 봤는데요... 앗 실수! 다 해석해 달라해서 들어 보았는데요. 잼이씁니다. 또해 주세요. 요요요...

[린네아]

특히 소매치기가 가방을 훔쳐 화장실에서 그 가방안에 돈이 가득 든 걸 보고 난 뒤에 돈이 너무 많아 고민하며 그 돈많은 가방주인을 원망하는 모습에 엄청 웃엇습니다.

[바라지]

등잔밑이 어둡다...아이구 아까워라...ㅎㅎㅎ 재미있게 봤습니다.

[가을정원]

재미있는 글같아서 담아 갑니다.감사합니다.