寓言故事中英文版—小偷

【大纪元5月24日讯】

晋国从前有很多小偷。有一个名叫却雍的人，很会辨认小偷。他只要定睛一看，小偷便无所遁形。因此，晋侯就聘请他，专门去辨认小偷。

却雍上任后，百无一失。晋侯非常高兴，对老臣赵文子说：“我只用一个人的力量，就可杜绝全国的小偷了。根本不需要用那么多人！”

赵文子不同意晋侯的说法，便道：“如果您只是一个人的眼睛去捕捉小偷，小偷是不会绝迹的。我恐怕却雍也不得好死。”

果然，小偷们很快就聚在一起商议说：“却雍是我们的大敌，我们一定要铲除他。”于是，他们设下陷阱把却雍杀掉。

晋侯知悉后，大为震惊，马上召赵文子说：“果然不出你所料，却雍被小偷们杀了。我该怎辨能杜绝小偷呢？”

赵文子回答说：“周朝有句名谚：能透视深渊的鱼的人，是不吉利的。同样，能窥悉他人秘密的本领，也只会带来不幸。大王如果真的想杜绝小偷，就要任用以身作则的贤士。只要人民有羞耻之心，他们就不会去偷窃。

晋候听从赵文子的忠告，任用贤能。不久，所有小偷都逃到邻国去了。

The Theives

Once there were many thieves in the State of Jin. There was also a man by the name of Xi Yong who could identify theives without fail.

Xi Yong only had to fix his eyes on a person for a moment, and he knew right away whether that person was a thief or not. For this reason, the King appointed him alone to identify thieves.

Since his appointment, Xi Yong had not errored once.

The King was very pleased. “I can rely on one man to stamp out all the thieves in this country,” he told Zhao Wenzi, his minister, confidently.”I really don’t need that many people at all.”

Zhao Wenzi disagreed with the King, “If you rely solely on the eyes of one man to catch the thieves, thieves will not go away. I’m afraid Xi Yong might die a violent death, too.”

Indeed, the thieves soon banded together and decided amongthemselves, “Xi Yong is our number one enemy. We must get rid of him.” Shortly afterwards they set a trap for Xi Yong and had him killed.

When the King heard the dreadful news, he was totally shocked and immediately summoned Zhao Wenzi to his presence. “Just as you’ve predicted,” said the King, “Xi Yong was murdered by the thieves. What must I do now to stamp out the thieves?”

“There was a famous saying in the Zhou Dynasty,” Zhan Wenzireplied. “‘One who can see the fish in the abyss is not a lucky man.’ For the same reason, having the ability to pierce other people’s secrets will bring harm upon oneself. If you really want to stamp out the thieves, you must appoint only men of virtue who teach by examples. As long as the people have a sense of shame, they will not steal.”

The King listened to Zhao Wenzi’s advice and appointed only men of virtue. Before long all the thieves had fled to the neighbouring states.

转自：《翀仔寓言网》@

(http://www.dajiyuan.com)