바늘 도둑이 소 도둑이 된다
needle thief-SUBJ cow thief-SUBJ becomes
A needle thief [eventually] becomes a cow thief.
This wasn’t to hard to translate – the verb is simple, the nouns straightforward. But what does it mean, proverbially? It’s the slippery slope argument, or the “gateway drug” argument. Starting small will still lead to perdition. Possibly true.
I think the literal version of this would make an interesting short story, about a needle thief becoming a cow thief – better yet, while retaining his virtue. Or maybe a cow-thieving alien, who started out as a needle-thieving alien (see right).
