"Did you ever take any of it out?" asked one of them.
问明了原因后，一个邻居问：“你使用过这些金块吗？
A robber, who had noticed this, went and dug up the gold and decamped with it. When the Miser next came to gloat over his treasures, he found nothing but the empty hole.
一天晚上，一个小偷挖走了所有的金块。 守财奴再来查看时，发现除了一个空洞什么都没有了。
A sinister looking man
一个可怕的人
Once upon a time there was a Miser who used to hide his gold at the foot of a tree in his garden; but every week he used to go and dig it up and gloat over his gains.
从前，有个守财奴将他的金块埋到一棵树下，每周他都去把他挖出来看看。
"Nay," said he, "I only came to look at it."
“没用过，” 他说，“我只是时常来看看。
Wealth unused might as well not exist.
寓意：即使是再珍贵的东西，如果不善加使用，也不会带来任何好处。
He tore his hair, and raised such an outcry that all the neighbours came around him, and he told them how he used to come and visit his gold.
守财奴便捶胸痛哭。哭声引来了邻居，他告诉他们这里原来有他的金块。
"Then come again and look at the hole," said a neighbour; "it will do you just as much good."
“那么，以后再来看这个洞，”邻居说，“就像以前有金块时一样。