Line by Line - Verse 19, Lines 5-6

If we could renounce our artful contrivances and discard our (scheming for) gain, there would be no thieves nor robbers.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Give up ingenuity, renounce profit,
And bandits and thieves will disappear.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

End cunning; discard profit
Bandits and thieves no longer exist
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Get rid of value and profit.
People will not steal if they do not desire.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

When we claim more than is sufficient (profit), it means protecting what we have. We must protect it from those who don't have enough AND from those who have enough but desire even more. In essence, we create a good deal of our own stress because the more we claim, the more we want and the more we want, the more that we become afraid of losing what we have already gained.

It becomes a perpetual cycle of chasing our own tail! It becomes a rapidly turning merry-go-round that is moving too fast to jump off of safely.

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