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Comment by ferguess_k | Hacker News Reader

窃(Steal)钩(hook)者(people)诛(gets a death sentence)

窃(Steal)国(country)者(people)侯(gets to be the king)

This is a remarkably good idiom that rings true.

Similar to Paul Getty's quote, "If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem."

But in this case, it cuts much deeper and darker.

I think that's a pretty different concept being expressed by that one.

The others are about getting away with something by just making the crime big enough that it's evaluated and handled in a totally different arena.

The bank can still destroy the rest of your life, so you didn't get away with anything (setting aside bankrupcy and how you can actually usually start over, and that may or may not be all that terrible for you).

The banking one is just saying that the bank can not get 100 million from you no matter what they do, because it simply doesn't exist. In that case, everyone still agrees you still owe it and they are entitled to it. You didn't gain anything by going big enough. And it's not really true that it's the banks problem instead of yours. The bank has a problem, but you still also have a problem.

"...setting aside bankrupcy and how you can actually usually start over, and that may or may not be all that terrible for you..." You might even be elected president...:-p

that's really not what it means, it means that if you owe the bank enough money (which is probably more than 100 million nowadays for any significant bank) then it is you in the position of power in relation to the bank, when the bank comes and says hey we need the money sure you have the "problem" that you need to pay it, but let's say you can pay it no sweat, but you'd rather not because reasons so you say hmm, I think I would like to renegotiate the interest and wait a year before paying, and unless things are very extreme the bank will probably have to acquiesce, if they don't they are basically letting the world know hey, we have a 100 million dollar problem, but until they make that announcement that 100 million is just another asset the bank has.

If you owe the bank enough money, you have the power in the relationship in most cases.

> If you owe the bank enough money, you have the power in the relationship in most cases.

If you have any assets, the bank can take them from you.

The thing about renegotiating a loan is you don't have enough assets, but if the bank takes what you do have, you will never be able to repay the loan. I.e. the bank stands to recover more if you are successful than if you are bankrupt.

>If you have any assets, the bank can take them from you

If you have any assets in the less than a billion dollars range, if you have assets over a billion dollars (which if you have enough of a loan in today's money to match the 100 million quote, you probably have over a billion in assets) then the bank knows its looking at a real fight. Nobody likes a real fight.

People like fights they're guaranteed to win quickly.

Thank you. I didn't consider that aspect which is embarassingly obvious now.

Is this missing a sentence like 'there is a saying in mandarin:'?

I think they meant: 窃钩者诛，窃国者侯 qiègōuzhě zhū, qièguózhě hóu He who steals a belt buckle pays with his life; he who steals a state gets to be a feudal lord.

Yes, it is a Chinese idiom.

The same in Spanish. Steal a hen, get a harsh sentence. Steal millions, you are now a respectable 'businessman'.

The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common But leaves the greater villain loose Who steals the common from off the goose.

Kill a man you're a murderer. Kill millions and you're a statesman.

Pretty sure that’s known as The Blair Doctrine.

Or the Stalin doctrine, "One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic"

I am Spanish and I have never heard this proverb...

Yeah it was a Chinese saying.

"He who steals from one citizen,” said Cato, “ends his days in fetters and chains; but he who steals from all ends them in purple and gold.”

> “Fures,” inquit [Cato], “privatorum furtorum in nervo atque in compedibus aetatem agunt, fures publici in auro atque in purpura.”

A. Gellius, Noctes Atticae, XI, 18, 18.

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Gellius/1...

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