Ji Kangzi met too many thieves and asked Confucius for advice. Confucius said, "I don't covet property, even if I have a reward, I won't steal it."

In The Analects of Confucius (P 108) by Zhang Yi, Zhonghua Book Company, Ji Kangzi suffered from many thieves and asked Confucius for countermeasures. Confucius said, "They are not greedy for property, even if they are rewarded for stealing, they will not steal."

Comparing the two, I think the second half of Zhang's translation is meaningless. In fact, in his translation of The Analects of Confucius, there are many similar unreasonable places, which are difficult to justify.

Here, Confucius' general view is to get rid of the dominant factor of "desire", so as to achieve the goal of not stealing. This is a very typical wishful and idealistic Confucianism. At least in this sentence, it is full of great fallacies and absurdities.