Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #22 A Good Neighbour worths a Thousand Silver Coins(千金买邻)
Good to be around high-quality people.
This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.
Story
Lu Sengzhen held a very high position in the imperial court of Liang Dynasty (approx. 500 A.D). Later he returned to his hometown as the prefecture governor. He did everything possible to keep a clean government and took good care of the local people. Therefore, he was highly respected by all, even after he retired.
One day, a family moved into the next house of the Lu’s. Lu immediately paid a courtesy visit to the new neighbour. During the conversation, they mentioned the house price and the neighbour said that he paid 1,100 silver coins for the house.
“What?!” Lu was very surprised. He didn’t expect that the house next to his was so costly.
Seeing this, the neighbour explained: “Oh, no, the house only cost one hundred. The extra one thousand is the value of having you as a neighbour.”
Meaning
A good neighbour is more precious than a house's worth; Good to be around high-quality people.
