Everyday English:Beaten for Nothing but Still Grateful

A man committed a crime and was arrested by thecounty

magistrate. He was sentenced to be floggeda hundred

times and was terrified. Fortunately, he was rich so

that he was able to bribe the magistrate and pay

someone to take the punishmentin his stead, offering

a hundred taels of silver to a poor man to stand in

for him. Tempted by themoney, the poor man agreed so

the magistrate released the rich man.After thirty

lashes, the poor man couldn't withstandthe pain

any longer and used the money he had received to

bribe the magistrate to let him go. Upon his release,

the poor man went to offer his thanks to the rich

man who was supposed to have been punished. "I'm
very grateful to you. Had it not been for the money
that you gave me, I would have been beaten to death!"
挨打还感恩
有一个人犯罪，被县官抓来打板。本来要打一百杖，那个人怕了，

不过他有钱，以前有钱的人可以贿赂县官，花钱找别人替你受这个

刑罚。所以他叫一个穷的人来代替，给他一百银两，那个穷人贪钱

答应了，县官也让有钱人回去了。结果穷人被打到三十板时，痛得

实在受不了，就把所有的钱拿出来贿赂那个县官，县官就放他回去。

穷人回去后，便跑到那个富有的、本来该受罚的人家里，道谢说「

谢谢你！如果没有你的钱的话，我已经被打死了！」