One day a father was teaching his son and said, "The keys to your success are keeping your word and cleverness. Once you give somebody a promise, you must carry it out on matter what will happen. This is called 'keeping one's words.'

"What is cleverness? asked his son.

"Cleverness is that you'll never make such a promise, " the father answered.

一天，父亲教育儿子说：“一个人成功的关键就是严守诺言和足够聪明。一旦你给了别人承诺，无论发生什么事，你都得实现它，这个就叫‘守诺言’。”

儿子问：“那么什么是聪明呢？”

父亲回答：“聪明就是任何时候都别做这样的承诺。”