◎ Mencius
Once there was a person, who every day stole a chicken from his neighbor.
Someone advised him, “You’re violating the code of conduct for an upright person. You had better give it up.”
The person was reluctant to follow the advice. “Then, allow me to change my bad habit in phases,” He said, “First, I plan to reduce the number of time I steal chickens to once a month. Then, I will stop stealing next year.”
Since the person knew his actions were wrong, he should have stopped stealing immediately. Why wait for next year? If he postponed this, then he would lose the opportunity to correct his mistake.