Peter joined the army when he was eighteen, and for several months he was taught how to be a good soldier. He did quite well in everything except shooting. One day he and his friends were practicing their shooting, and all of them were doing quite well except Peter. After he had shot at the target nine times and had not hit it once, the officer who was trying to teach the young soldiers to shoot said, "You're quite hopeless, Peter! Don't waste your last bullet too! Go behind that wall and shoot yourself with it!"
Peter felt ashamed. He went behind the wall, and a few seconds later the officer and the other young soldiers heard the sound of a shot.
"Heavens!" the officer said. "Has that silly man really shot himself?"
He ran behind the wall anxiously, but Peter was all right. "I'm sorry, sir," he said, "but I missed again."
慚愧的士兵
彼得十八歲那年參了軍，他需要參加幾個月的學習以成為壹名好士兵。彼得在其他方面都做得很好，但是射擊不行。壹天他和夥伴們練習射擊，除了彼得其他人都沒有問題。他射了九次，壹次也沒有命中目標。這時，教新兵射擊的教官說：“彼得，妳看來是沒希望了，不要連最後壹發子彈都浪費掉！去那堵墻後面用它向自己打壹槍吧。”
彼得感到非常慚愧。他走到那堵墻後面。幾分鐘後，教官和新兵們聽到壹聲槍響。
“上帝！”教官叫起來，“難道那個笨蛋真的朝自己開槍了？”
他急忙跑到那堵墻後面，發現彼得安然無恙。“對不起，長官，”他說，“我還是沒有命中。”