There was once a very crafty and cunning thief who had all his life practiced
theft without ever being caught red-handed. Now he was getting old and his son,
fearing that his art of stealing might to be lost forever with his death, begged
him to disclose the secret of his success."There's no secret to be handed down to you, son," replied the old
thief. "Just go ahead and do it yourself, that's all."One evening, the young thief sneaked into the bedroom of a rich man. There he
found a large wardrobe which was by chance not locked. Hiding himself in the
wardrobe, he intended to wait until the master of the house had gone to sleep
and then come out and make off with whatever he could lay hands on. Hardly had
the master of the house gone to bed when he remembered that he had forgotten to
lock the wardrobe. So he immediately got up to fasten the lock. Trapped in the
wardrobe, the young thief did not know how to extricate himself. As the night
wore on, he was getting more desperate every minute until he hit upon an idea.
He then made a scraping sound with his fingers as if rats were gnawing
something. The sound awakened the sleeping man who, for fear that the rats might
gnaw holes in his clothes, sprang up from his bed to unlock the wardrobe and
chase the rats away. As soon as the door of the wardrobe was flung open, the
young thief sprang out from within and made good his escape."Oh, dad!" cried the young thief after he came home," why didn't you
tell me the secret of your success? I nearly paid the forfeit of my life. I
wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn't hit upon that bright idea of
mine.""That's it," replied his father. "This is all you need to know,
There's nothing else I can hand down to you. "A good teacher leads without compelling and inspires without elaborating. The
important thing is to have someone carry out your will.