40、Smith was a landlord. He loved money very much and never gave anything to anybody. Soon he became rich.
One day the weather was fine. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was very warm. The landlord was walking along a river with his friends, when, all of a sudden, he slipped and fell into it. He cried, “Help! Help!” One of his friends held out his hand and said, “Give me your hand and I will pull you out.” The landlord's head went under the water and then came up again, but he did not give his hand to his friends. Then another of his friends tried but the same thing happened.
Just then a farmer came over and saw all this. He knew the landlord very well. He said to the others, “Let me try.” He held out his hand and said to the landlord, “Take my hand and I will pull you out.” Hearing this, the landlord took the farmer's hand, and in a minute the farmer pulled the landlord out of the water.
All the others got very surprised at this and asked the farmer, “Why did he give his hand to you but not to us?” The farmer said, “You don't know your friend very well, When you say 'give' to him, he does nothing, but when you say 'take' he takes.”