Long long ago, there were three men who lived very badly. One morning, they were told that a man was killed by a thief called death. Death had killed many people. But the young men weren ’ t afraid and made a promise : if one of them was killed, the other two would kill the murderer . One day they met an old and poor man who said to them that they could find Death under an oak( 橡树 ). The three men ran down the crooked path towards the tree. When they found the oak they saw a huge pile of new gold coins . They all got very excited and forgot all about Death. One of the said, “ We must hide the gold coins as soon as possible. One of us must go back to the town to get some food and drink. The other two must guard the money. ” This plan sounded sensible . S o the youngest man went back to the town and his two friends waited in the woods. T he two men wanted to share the money equally between them, so they planned to kill their young friend. Then the youngest man came back with some food and three bottles of wine. The two men were very hungry and ate the food. They sat down to drink the wine. Immediately both died painfully .