The Delivery Drone

Malik's neighborhood had started using small delivery drones the previous year. Most people barely looked up anymore when one buzzed overhead. But lately, Malik noticed something odd. A drone kept landing on his porch every afternoon around four, even though he hadn't ordered anything.

马利克住的街区从去年开始使用小型送货无人机。大多数人听到头顶嗡嗡飞过，已经不怎么抬头看了。可最近，马利克注意到一件奇怪的事。每天下午四点左右，总有一架无人机降落在他家门廊上，可他明明什么都没订。

The first time, he assumed a neighbor had simply gotten his address wrong. He carried the small package two doors down to a house with a similar number. But the neighbor there, Ravi, said it wasn't his either.

第一次，他以为是邻居把地址弄错了。他提着那个小包裹，走到隔两户的一栋门牌号相近的房子。但那里的邻居拉维说，这也不是他的。

"Weird," Ravi said, shrugging. "Maybe it's a mix-up with the delivery system."

“奇怪，”拉维耸了耸肩说，“也许是送货系统出了差错。”

The next day, another package arrived at exactly four o'clock. This time, Malik opened the tracking app instead of guessing. The order showed a name he didn't recognize and an address just one digit different from his own. The street curved back around two blocks away.

第二天，又一个包裹在正好四点钟送到了。这一次，马利克没有再瞎猜，而是打开了查询物流的应用。订单上显示的是一个他不认识的名字，地址跟他家只差一个数字。那条街绕个弯，在两个街区之外。

Curious now, he decided to actually walk the delivery route himself instead of reporting the problem right away. He wanted to understand what was going wrong before complaining. Following the drone's usual flight path with his eyes, he made a discovery. The two streets ran almost parallel, separated only by a thin strip of trees. The numbering on each one restarted at the same point.

这下他好奇起来，决定先亲自走一遍送货路线，而不是马上去反映问题。他想先弄明白到底是哪里出了错，再去投诉。他用目光沿着无人机常飞的路线看过去，有了一个发现。这两条街几乎是平行的，中间只隔着一道窄窄的树林带。两条街的门牌号都是从同一个位置重新开始编的。

Malik reported the issue through the app, explaining exactly what he'd noticed about the overlapping street numbers. Within a day, a message came back thanking him. It confirmed that the drone's navigation system had been updated to tell the two streets apart properly.

马利克通过应用报告了这个问题，把他注意到的街道门牌重叠的情况说得清清楚楚。一天之内，就有一条消息回复过来，向他表示感谢。消息说明，无人机的导航系统已经更新，能够正确区分这两条街了。

A week later, Ravi knocked on Malik's door, holding a small thank-you gift from the delivery company. "They sent this to both of us," he said, grinning. "Apparently we weren't the only ones who'd been getting each other's packages."

一周后，拉维来敲马利克的门，手里拿着送货公司寄来的一份小小的感谢礼物。“他们寄给了我们两个人，”他笑着说，“看来不只是我们俩一直收到对方的包裹。”

Malik laughed, glad the strange little mystery had finally been solved. He was even more pleased that it had come with free cookies.

马利克笑了，很高兴这个奇怪的小谜团终于解开了。更让他高兴的是，这个谜团还带来了免费的饼干。