撿50個煙蒂，就可以換1包紙巾。這本是嵊州市政府為提升市民環衛意識發起的活動。但是隨著時間的推移，事情的發展脫離了策劃者的初衷。兌換紙巾的市民越來越多，兌換現場排起了“長龍”，場面一度失控。

The authorities in Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province, were encouraging people to collect discarded cigarettes from the streets and hand them in, the Sohu news website reports. For every 50 that were collected, the city was offering a pack of tissues in return. But the apparently meagre reward had people turning out in droves.
據搜狐新聞網報道，浙江省嵊州市政府鼓勵人們收集街道上丟棄的香煙，交給政府。每收集50個煙蒂，政府就給兌換一包紙巾。這看似小小的獎勵卻引得人們蜂擁而至。

The sanitation task force was soon flooded with cigarette butts, receiving almost five million of them in three weeks, and costing them 100,000 packets of tissues. One elderly woman turned up with more than 9,000 butts, Sohu says. People were counting out their used cigarettes in little piles outside the office, the Zhejiang Radio and TV Group reports.
該市環衛處很快就堆滿了煙蒂，這里在3周內收到了近500萬個煙蒂，兌換出10萬包紙巾。搜狐稱，有位老婦人送來9000多個煙蒂。據浙江廣播電視集團報道，人們在辦公室外一小堆一小堆的數著煙蒂。

Officials soon felt that something was amiss, suspecting that those taking part had either been sent cigarettes by people beyond Shengzhou, or had travelled in from elsewhere. That prompted them to cancel the campaign.
當地官員很快就發現事情不太對勁，他們懷疑要么有外地人給參與活動的人送來煙蒂，要么就是外地人來參與兌換。活動因此被取消了。

"Many of the cigarette butts we received were fairly clean - they were not soiled or soaked in any way, and they didn't look like they were picked up from the ground," an unnamed official tells The Paper. "We couldn't be sure where the butts were collected, so we had no choice but to accept them all."
一位不具名的官員告訴澎湃新聞，“我們收到許多相當干凈的煙蒂——上面完全沒有沾染泥土、水漬，看起來不像是從地面上撿的。我們不能確定這些煙蒂是從哪里收集來的，所以不得不全部收下。”

Many social media users feel the government can only blame itself for how things turned out. "It is just that the authorities haven't prepared it well enough," one says on the Sina Weibo microblogging site. While some are unimpressed that people tried to cheat the system, others point out a potentially unintended consequence: the scheme could simply encourage smokers to light up more often. "It's no different from welfare for smokers," one person writes. "Save your cigarette butts, we'll give you tissues in exchange."
許多社交媒體用戶認為，事情演變成這樣政府只能怪自己。一位新浪微博網友表示,“這只能說明政府沒有做好充分的準備。”雖然一些人對于人們試圖欺詐的行為不以為然，但也有人指出政府此舉可能帶來意想不到的后果：這一方案可能只會鼓勵吸煙者吸更多煙。有網友寫道，“這和給吸煙者發福利沒什么區別，留下煙蒂，我們就給你兌換紙巾。”

Vocabulary

meager: 數量很少的
in droves: 成群結隊
amiss: 不對，不正常

英文來源：英國廣播公司
翻譯：董靜
編審：丹妮