Stories from History: Si Maguang Cared about People
resigning from his official post, Si Maguang , a prominent statesman in
Song dynasty (960-1279AD), returned to Luoyang city and moved into a
new house his family had built. A few days afterwards, Si Maguang went
for a walk and saw several dozen sharp bamboo sticks planted in the
dark places outside of the yard wall. He asked his servant what the
sticks were for. His servant said: "Those bamboo sticks are used to
prevent theft. Pedestrians won't come near here." Si Maguang said: "How
much money do we have in our house? Besides, thieves are people as
well. How can we use such a method to deal with them?"
He ordered the servants to remove those sharp sticks right away.
Our forefathers emphasized the virtuous and kind deeds such that no one
would pick up things that others lost on the roads and families did not
close their front doors during the night. Nowadays every family in
China installs theft-proof doors and still worries that their
doors are not good enough to guard against theft.
From Daoshan Qinghua
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2007/5/10/43764.html