Thus in a So it was that only a few years since  after the appearance of the honest man, the inhabitants of the country no longer people no longer spoke of robbing and being robbed; , but only ofthe about being rich and being the poor; but they were still all thieves.  Nonetheless still thieves at heart. 

The only honest man had been the one at the beginning, and he died in very short order, of hunger.

Of course, the only honest man had long died from hunger.

Very interesting story.  Thanks for sharing.

In less than a week, the honest man found himself penniless.  he had There was nothing to eat and in his empty house was empty. This was his fault since he did not steal.  However, this action became a problem for others.  Since he did not steal, the owners of the untouched house became richer while those went into the honest person's home, found nothing and became poorer since their homes was burglarized.   But this was hardly a problem, since it was his own fault; no, the problem was that his behaviour upset everything else. Because he let the others steal everything he had without stealing anything from anybody; so there was always someone who came home at dawn to find their house untouched: the house he should have robbed. In any event after a while the ones who weren’t being robbed found themselves richer than the others and didn’t want to steal any more. To make matters worse, the ones who came to steal from the honest man’s house found it was always empty; so they became poor.

Meanwhile, the ones For those who had become richer, they found that going to the bridge at night to see the waters flowing was a relaxing habit [There should be a reason to do so; otherwise it makes a story not so credible.  Since I don't know the story, I shall go and check it up.] got into the honest man’s habit of going to the bridge at night to watch the water flow by beneath. This act soon made the situation into a more confused state because some became richer while others became poorer. increased the confusion because it meant lots of others became rich and lots of others became poor.

Now, Soon the newly the rich people saw realized that if they went to the bridge every night they’d they would become poor soon be poor. And they thought: ‘Let’s So why not pay some of the poor to go and rob for them instead? us.’ They made contracts, fixed salaries and percentages.  Of course they were still thieves at heart.  The swindling just never ceased.  However,   of course, and they still tried to swindle each other. But, as tends to happen, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer and poorer.

Then some of the rich people got became so rich wealthy that they didn’t did not feel the need to steal or have others to steal for them.  The they hit on the idea of having the poorest [of the poor] to safeguard their property from being stolen.  or have others steal for them so as to stay rich. But if they stopped stealing they would get poor because the poor stole from them. So they paid the very poorest of the poor to defend their property from the other poor, and that meant setting up a police force and building prisons. Soon a police force was set up and along came prisons.

Black Sheep, By Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino was an Italian writer of short stories and novels; a critic and theorist which whose critical atmosphere of his works caused he had him to become a one one of famous Italian writers of in the twentieth century.

Black sheep is one of his short stories. comes here below on In the correction box is a Farsi translation done which translated by Farzad Hemmati and Mohammadreza Farzad into Farsi. The English is my translation from Farsi.

There was a country where they were all thieves lived.

At night, everybody would leave home with skeleton keys and with shaded lanterns and go and burgle to buglarize their neighbour’s home.  When they came back to their own homes, they house. They’d get back at dawn, loaded, to find found their own house homes had also been broken into. robbed.

So Everybody lived happily together, nobody lost out, since no one "lost" anything as each home was buglarized evenly. each stole from the other, and that other from another again, and so on and on until you got to a last person who stole from the first. Obviously, cheating was occuring all the time while trading in the country. Every buyer and seller was a cheat.  inevitably involved cheating on the parts both of the buyer and the seller. The government was a the head criminal organization that stole from its subjects, and the subjects were too defrauding the government with great relish. for their part were only interested in defrauding the government. Thus life went on smoothly, no one was rich or poor.  nobody was rich and nobody was poor.

One day, how it happened, we don’t know.   it so happened that An honest man came to live in the country place. At night, instead of going out with his sack and his lantern, he stayed home to smoke and read novels.

The neighbour thieves came, and saw the light on and didn’t  dared not go in.

This went on for a while.   then Soon the neighbours felt they were obliged to explain to him the honest neighbour that even if he choose to do nothing, he should not prevent others from doing their own things.  If he stays at home and not to steal, his family will have nothing to eat the next day.  wanted to live without doing anything, it was no reason to stop others from doing things. Every night he spent at home meant a family would have nothing to eat the following day.

The honest man could hardly was unable to object to such reasoning. So instead of staying home in the night to read or to smoke, he went out  He took to going out in the evening and coming back the following morning like they did, but he didn’t not steal. He was an honest person and there was nothing you could one can do about it. He went as far as to the bridge and watched the water flowing by beneath. When he got returned home, he found he his place had been robbed.

عده‌ای هم آن‌قدر ثروتمند شدند که دیگر برای ثروتمند ماندن، نه نیاز به دزدی مستقیم داشتند و نه این‌که کسی برایشان دزدی کند. ولی مشکل این‌جا بود که اگر دست از دزدی می‌کشیدند، فقیر می‌شدند؛ چون فقیرها در هر حال از آن‌ها می‌دزدیدند. فکری به خاطرشان رسید؛ آمدند و فقیرترین آدم‌ها را استخدام کردند تا اموال‌شان را در مقابل دیگر فقیرها حفاظت کنند، اداره‌ی پلیس برپا شد و زندان‌ها ساخته شد.

به این ترتیب، چند سالی از آمدن مرد درستکار به شهر نگذشته بود که مردم دیگر از دزدیدن و دزدیده شدن حرفی به میان نمی‌آوردند. صحبت‌ها حالا دیگر فقط از دارا و ندار بود؛ اما در واقع هنوز همه دزد بودند.

تنها فرد درستکار، همان مرد اولی بود که ما نفهمیدیم برای چه به آن شهر آمد و کمی بعد هم از گرسنگی مُرد.

There was a country where they were all thieves.

At night everybody would leave home with skeleton keys and shaded lanterns and go and burgle a neighbour’s house. They’d get back at dawn, loaded, to find their own house had been robbed.

So everybody lived happily together, nobody lost out, since each stole from the other, and that other from another again, and so on and on until you got to a last person who stole from the first. Trade in the country inevitably involved cheating on the parts both of the buyer and the seller. The government was a criminal organization that stole from its subjects, and the subjects for their part were only interested in defrauding the government. Thus life went on smoothly, nobody was rich and nobody was poor.

One day, how we don’t know, it so happened that an honest man came to live in the place. At night, instead of going out with his sack and his lantern, he stayed home to smoke and read novels.

The thieves came, saw the light on and didn’t go in.

This went on for a while: then they were obliged to explain to him that even if he wanted to live without doing anything, it was no reason to stop others from doing things. Every night he spent at home meant a family would have nothing to eat the following day.

The honest man could hardly object to such reasoning. He took to going out in the evening and coming back the following morning like they did, but he didn’t steal. He was honest, there was nothing you could do about it. He went as far as the bridge and watched the water flow by beneath. When he got home he found he had been robbed.

In less than a week the honest man found himself penniless, he had nothing to eat and his house was empty. But this was hardly a problem, since it was his own fault; no, the problem was that his behaviour upset everything else. Because he let the others steal everything he had without stealing anything from anybody; so there was always someone who came home at dawn to find their house untouched: the house he should have robbed. In any event after a while the ones who weren’t being robbed found themselves richer than the others and didn’t want to steal any more. To make matters worse, the ones who came to steal from the honest man’s house found it was always empty; so they became poor.

Meanwhile, the ones who had become rich got into the honest man’s habit of going to the bridge at night to watch the water flow by beneath. This increased the confusion because it meant lots of others became rich and lots of others became poor.

Now, the rich people saw that if they went to the bridge every night they’d soon be poor. And they thought: ‘Let’s pay some of the poor to go and rob for us.’ They made contracts, fixed salaries, percentages: they were still thieves of course, and they still tried to swindle each other. But, as tends to happen, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer and poorer.

Some of the rich people got so rich that they didn’t need to steal or have others steal for them so as to stay rich. But if they stopped stealing they would get poor because the poor stole from them. So they paid the very poorest of the poor to defend their property from the other poor, and that meant setting up a police force and building prisons.

So it was that only a few years after the appearance of the honest man, people no longer spoke of robbing and being robbed, but only of the rich and the poor; but they were still all thieves.

The only honest man had been the one at the beginning, and he died in very short order, of hunger.