《中英對照讀新聞》 German woman tricks herself out of reward 貪圖賞金 德國婦女偷雞不著蝕把米

◎ 羅彥傑

When a German woman found a wallet containing 1,000 euros （$1,220） she decided it was better to get a reward from the owner than to keep the money -- even if that meant resorting to extortion, police said.

當一名德國婦女發現一個錢包裡裝有1,000 歐元（1,220美元）時，她決定上策是向失主討賞，而非吞下拾金—儘管這意味要訴諸強索手段，警方說。

"It was a bit stupid. She could just have kept the wallet," said a spokeswoman for police in the southwestern city of Darmstadt. "But she wanted the finder’s reward -- and might have got one anyway. But she opted to extort it instead."

「這有一點蠢。她可以逕自留住這個錢包，」西南部城市達慕士塔警局一名女發言人說。「但她想得到拾金者的賞金—其實無論如何都應該拿得到。她卻選擇用強索方式。」

Police said the 47-year-old woman found the owner’s phone number in the wallet and told the pensioner she could only have it back for 100 euros "plus 20 euros travel costs".

警方說，這名47歲的婦女在錢包中發現失主的手機號碼，而且告訴這名退休老人，她要拿回錢包，就必須付100歐元，「外加20歐元的旅費」。

The owner agreed to the terms, and tipped off police, who arrested the woman with the wallet at the handover point.

這名物主同意這些條件，而且向警方報案，警方也在交貨地點人贓俱獲逮捕到這名婦女。

新聞辭典

trick ∼ out of︰片語，指哄騙、愚弄。例句：The official was tricked out of office.（這名官員被騙丟官。）

resort to：片語，指訴諸。例句：The parents in Asia resort to punishment to make children obey.（亞洲的父母們用懲罰的方式讓小孩聽話。）

extortion：名詞，敲詐、勒索或強求。例句：Law enforcement agencies in the UK and Russia have broken up an extortion and money-laundering ring that targeted sports-betting Web sites.（英、俄兩國執法機關破獲一個專門鎖定運動賭博網站的勒索與洗錢集團。）

to tip off：片語，告密、放消息。例句：The reporters who were tipped off anout the incident raced to the scene.（被告知此事的記者們趕抵現場。）

handover：移交、轉交。例句：The relatively high rate of US military casualties has dimmed hope that the handover of power to the Iraqi government would help stabilize the country.（高比率的美軍傷亡人數，已使得政權移交給伊拉克政府將有助於穩定該國局勢的希望趨於渺茫。）