丢失的奶牛

鸭绒25（译）

2024年8月25日

一位大城市的律师被请来处理一个农夫和铁路公司之间的案件。

农夫发现，他那头珍贵的奶牛在火车经过的那片田地里失踪了。他向铁路公司提起诉讼，要求赔偿奶牛的损失。该案件在杂货店后屋里的治安官面前审理。

律师立即把农夫拉到墙角，试图让他庭外和解。律师尽了最大努力，农夫最终同意，接受他所要求赔偿金的一半来解决此案。

农夫签署了弃权书，并拿到支票后，这位年轻的律师禁不住对自己的成功有点沾沾自喜。

他对农夫说：“你知道，我不想告诉你这个。其实，我是骗了你的。我不可能赢得这场官司。那天早上，当火车经过你的农场时，工程师正在睡觉，消防员守在车里。我找不到一个证人可以帮你出庭作证。”

农夫回答说：“好吧。我也要告诉你，小伙子。我自己都有点担心是否能打赢这场官司。因为那头该死的牛今天早上回家了！”

注：“治安官（Justice of the Peace）”也被翻译成“太平绅士（英语简称JP）”。他通常是下级法院的司法官员，或知名民间人士，通过选举或政府任命，在管辖范围的地区内，执行简单的司法程序，主持审理轻罪案件、交通违规，和其他轻微刑事违法行为的法庭。治安官也可能有权处理涉及小额债务、房东和房客纠纷，或其他小额索赔法庭诉讼的案件。治安官的诉讼程序通常比正式法院的诉讼程序更快、更随意。

原文： Missing Cow

A big city lawyer was called in on a case between a farmer and the railroad company。

A farmer noticed that his prize cow was missing from the field which the railroad passed through。He filed suit against the railroad company for the value of the cow。The case was to be tried before the justice of the peace in the back room of the general store。

The attorney immediately cornered the farmer and tried to get him to settle out of court。The lawyer did his best selling job，and the farmer finally agreed to take half of what he was claiming to settle the case。

After the farmer signed the release and took the check，the young lawyer couldn't help but gloat a little over his success。

He said to the farmer：“You know，I hate to tell you this but I put one over on you in there。I couldn't have won the case。The engineer was asleep and the fireman was in the caboose when the train went through your farm that morning。I didn't have one witness to put on the stand。”

The old farmer replied：“Well，I'll tell you，young feller，I was a little worried about winning that case myself because that durned cow came home this morning！”