朝三暮四 Chāo Sān Mù Sì
Three in the Morning, Four in the Afternoon
There was a man who liked monkeys. He had a lot of them in his house. He understood his monkeys and the monkeys understood him. It cost a lot of money to care for all these monkeys, but he was afraid to stop buying them food in case they get upset. So he tried to reason with his monkeys.
“I’ll give you three chestnuts in the morning and four in the afternoon,” he told them. But they didn’t like that.
“Then I’ll give you four in the morning and three in the afternoon.”
The monkeys were happy.
The original meaning of this proverb referred to people who try to deceive, but it now also refers to people who cannot make up their mind.
