A Man was engaged in digging over his vineyard, and one day on coming to work he missed his Spade. Thinking it may have been stolen by one of his labourers, he questioned them closely, but they one and all denied any knowledge of it. He was not convinced by their denials, and insisted that they should all go to the town and take oath in a temple that they were not guilty of the theft. This was because he had no great opinion of the simple country deities, but thought that the thief would not pass undetected by the shrewder gods of the town. When they got inside the gates the first thing they heard was the town crier proclaiming a reward for information about a thief who had stolen something from the city temple. “Well,” said the Man to himself, “it strikes me I had better go back home again. If these town gods can't detect the thieves who steal from their own temples, it's scarcely likely they can tell me who stole my Spade.”
一个男人在他的葡萄园里面翻地，有一天发现他的铁锹不见了。他觉得极有可能是被他的长工偷走了，于是便严厉地审问，但所有的长工都说不知道。他并不相信，坚持认为他们应该去城里，到神庙里面发誓自己没有偷盗。他觉得村子里的神思维简单，不值得信任，认为贼人肯定通不过精明的城里的神的考验。等他们进了城里的神庙大门，就听到一个城里人正在宣布关于悬赏偷盗了庙里物品的贼人的信息。那人听了自言自语道：“算了，我还是回家吧。如果城里的神都没有办法探查到从他们的庙里偷东西的贼，让他们告诉我到底谁偷了我的铁锹，估计是不太可能的。”