【成語來源】

　　梁上君子

　　In the Eastern Han Dynasty (東漢), there was a man named Chen Shi (陳寔) .

　　在東漢初年，有個人叫陳寔。

　　One day, a thief slippedinto his living-room. Hiding behind the beam, the thief waited for Chen Shi to fall asleep.

　　有一天，一個小賊溜進了他的房間，躲在房梁上等著陳寔去睡覺再下手。

　　Chen Shi, finding the thief, called his family together, saying, "To be a uprightman one must have aspirations. Men are not born evil. But if one gets used to doing evil things, it will be hard to reform. The gentleman above the beamis such a man."

　　陳寔發(fā)現(xiàn)了小偷，把他的家人都召集在一起，說：“人不可以不自強。人不是天生就壞的，壞習慣往往是由不注意自身品性修養(yǎng)所致的。咱家房梁上這個人就是這樣。”

　　The thief, hearing this, hurriedlyjumped down and knelt on the ground to beg forgiveness.

　　小偷聽到這話，從房梁上跳到地上，跪在陳寔面前，請求原諒，決心做個有用的人。

　　This idiom is used to refer to a thief.

　　這個成語用來比喻小偷。