《无功不受禄》这则寓言故事我们从小就听过，这里我们把这则寓言故事提供英文版本，让英语教师们在上课的时候可以使用中英文对照双语版本。

The Prime Minister's Gift -无功不受禄

Lie Zi was poor. Of then he and his wife had to go hungry, so they both looked malnourished.

列子家贫，常要挨饿，因此夫妇二人都面黄肌瘦。

Somebody reported his plight to the Prime Minister, Here's a virtuous man, Lie Zi, who lives in your state, and yet he's starving. Does that mean you don't care a button for men of virtue?

有人对丞相说：「列子贤德，现住在你国内却一贫如洗。难道你不喜欢有德行的人吗?」

The Prime Minister immediately sent some men to deliver food to Lie Zi.

丞相听了这些话后，马上派人送食物给列子。

On seeing the envoys coming from a distance, Lie Zi hurried to the door and politely refused the Prime Minister' s gift. After the envoys were gone, he went back into the house. There he found his wife, weeping.

列子看见使者从远处走来，立即趋前迎接，婉辞食物。

I hear people say that wives of virtuous men all do well. Yet here I am starving most of the time! she moaned.

使者走后，列子返回家中，看见妻子正在低头饮泣。

Now that the Prime Minister knows about our poverty and is trying to help, you refuse him. Fate must have decided that we should be poor! she cried bitterly.

妻子埋怨说：「我听说有德之士的妻子，皆生活舒适，而我却常要挨饿。现在丞相知道我们的苦况而送来食物，你竟一口拒绝。莫非我们命该如此! 」

Lie Zi comforted her saying,The Prime Minister is not sending us food because he respects me. It is because somebody has told him so. In future he might just as well listen to somebody else's words and find fault with me. That is why I couldn't accept his gift.

列子安慰她说：「丞相送来食物，并不是因为他赏识我，​​而是因为别人叫他这样做而已，将来他也可听信别人的话而加罪于我，因此我不能接受他的好意。」

Some time later the people rose up against the Prime Minister and had him killed.

后来，人民不满丞相，群起造反，把他杀掉了。

注：什么叫做无功不受禄?不只是说没有给予别人过帮助，就不好意思接受别人的感谢。而是说自己的付出太少，得到的太多，付出的和得到的相差太远，自己不该得到这么多却得到了，心里没底，惶惶不安，这才是无功不受禄的含义。