【大紀元5月24日訊】

晉國從前有很多小偷。有一個名叫卻雍的人，很會辨認小偷。他只要定睛一看，小偷便無所遁形。因此，晉侯就聘請他，專門去辨認小偷。

卻雍上任後，百無一失。晉侯非常高興，對老臣趙文子說：「我只用一個人的力量，就可杜絕全國的小偷了。根本不需要用那麼多人！」

趙文子不同意晉侯的說法，便道：「如果您只是一個人的眼睛去捕捉小偷，小偷是不會絕跡的。我恐怕卻雍也不得好死。」

果然，小偷們很快就聚在一起商議說：「卻雍是我們的大敵，我們一定要剷除他。」於是，他們設下陷阱把卻雍殺掉。

晉侯知悉後，大為震驚，馬上召趙文子說：「果然不出你所料，卻雍被小偷們殺了。我該怎辨能杜絕小偷呢？」

趙文子回答說：「周朝有句名諺：能透視深淵的魚的人，是不吉利的。同樣，能窺悉他人秘密的本領，也只會帶來不幸。大王如果真的想杜絕小偷，就要任用以身作則的賢士。只要人民有羞恥之心，他們就不會去偷竊。

晉候聽從趙文子的忠告，任用賢能。不久，所有小偷都逃到鄰國去了。

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.

轉自：《翀仔寓言網》@

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