During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), there was an official named Zhang Guaiya who worked in Chongyang county (縣), in today’s Hubei. Theft was common – even money from the county’s vault (錢庫) was stolen.

宋朝時(shí)期，張乖崖在崇陽（今屬湖北）當(dāng)縣令。當(dāng)時(shí)，盜竊案頻發(fā)，——甚至府庫的錢也會(huì)被偷。

One day, Zhang saw a low-ranking official (小吏) come out of the vault in a panic (慌張). Zhang stopped him and asked, “Why are you in such a hurry?” Zhang remembered the things stolen from the vault. So he asked the guards to search the official. They found a copper coin (銅錢) in his headband (頭巾).

一天，張乖崖看見一個(gè)小吏從府庫中慌慌張張地走出來。張乖崖覺得奇怪，就把小吏喊到跟前問話，發(fā)現(xiàn)小吏頭巾下藏著一枚銅錢。

Zhang asked him how much more money he had stolen. The official refused to admit (承認(rèn)) that he stole anything else. Zhang ordered the guards to beat him. The official didn’t give in. He said, “I only stole a copper coin. You can’t kill me just because of that!”

張乖崖審問小吏有沒有偷別的東西，小吏拒絕承認(rèn)，張乖崖讓人用杖刑懲罰他。那小吏不服氣：“一文錢算得了什么！你不能因此就要?dú)⑽遥?rdquo;

Zhang was very angry. He wrote in a red pen, “If you steal a coin every day, there will be a thousand coins after a thousand days. Constant dripping wears away a stone (水滴石穿).”

張乖崖大怒，在判決書上寫道：“一日一錢，千日千錢，繩鋸木斷，水滴石穿。”意思是說，假如每天偷一個(gè)銅錢，一千天就是一千個(gè)銅錢。同樣，如果用繩子鋸木頭，時(shí)間長(zhǎng)了，木頭會(huì)被鋸斷。水滴時(shí)常滴在石頭上，石頭也會(huì)被滴穿。

“水滴石穿”一方面告訴我們“勿以惡小而為之，勿以善小而不為”。

另一方面，也在告訴我們成功沒有捷徑。做事短時(shí)間內(nèi)可能看不到進(jìn)展，堅(jiān)持下去才能看到進(jìn)步哦！