Once upon a time, there lived an old man in Song Kingdom, who raised a lot of monkeys at home. The old man fed each monkey eight acorns every day, four in the morning and four in the evening. Later he fed so many monkeys that he had not enough acorns. So he wanted to feed monkeys seven acorns each day. Then he discussed with his monkeys, “From today on, I will give each of you four acorns in the morning and three acorns in the evening. Is that O.K.?” Hearing this, all the monkeys got angry. How come lack one in the evening? Then the old man changed to say, “I'll give each of you four acorns in the morning and three acorns in the evening.” Thinking that there were still four in the evening, all the monkeys became happy again.Three in the morning, four in the evening: The idiom originally means to fool others by playing tricks. It later extends to mean changing one’s mind frequently or not being responsible.Other expressions: to play fast and loose or to chop and change.
朝三暮四 (zhāo sān mù sì)
【翻译】Three at Dawn and Four at Dusk.
【释义】原指玩弄手法欺骗人。后用来比喻常常变卦,反复无常。
【例句】你一旦有了目标就要做下去,千万不能朝三暮四,否则最后只会一事无成。
【近义词】朝秦暮楚,反复无常
【反义词】墨守成规,一成不变,一诺千金,一言九鼎,一心一意