There was a man who used to steal a chicken from his neighbours every day.
“It is wrong to steal,” someone told him.
“I’ll cut down on it,” promised the chicken thief. ”I shall steal one chicken a month from now on, and stop altogether next year.”
Mencius rebuked him: “If you know it’s wrong, cease at once! Why wait a year?”
Allegorical Meaning
This passage from Mencius: Teng Wen Gong II uses the sharp metaphor of chicken theft to expose the moral evasion behind political procrastination. By equating excessive taxation with theft, Mencius collapses the distinction between private vice and public injustice. State power offers no moral exemption – rulers are judged by the same ethical standards as ordinary people.
Condemnation of Gradual Evil
The thief’s attempt to “phase out” wrongdoing exposes a deeper hypocrisy: evil justified incrementally remains evil. Mencius attacks the fallacy that slowly reducing sin absolves its immorality. Like reducing theft from daily to monthly, delaying justice only prolongs harm.
Immediacy in Moral Reform
Mencius’ retort — “cease now!” — demands instant ethical action. The parable targets rulers who promise future reforms (e.g., lowering oppressive taxes “step by step”) while perpetuating injustice. True virtue requires urgent correction, not self-serving timelines.
The Illusion of Compromise
The thief’s proposal mirrors political expediency: using “pragmatism” to mask moral failure. Mencius argues such compromises corrode integrity. A wrong never becomes right by committing it less frequently; it merely institutionalizes corruption.
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