一饭千金

Pronunciation: yī fàn qiān jīn Literal meaning: One meal, a thousand gold

Origin & Usage

Han Xin, starving and unemployed, was fed for weeks by an old washerwoman at the riverside. When he offered to repay her some day she was unimpressed, saying she had fed him because he was hungry and wanted nothing. Years later, made King of Chu, he had her found and sent her a thousand in gold (千金) for those meals (一饭). The Records of the Grand Historian sets the gift beside his other repayments: the village head who had turned him out got a hundred coins and a lecture on doing good by halves, and the youth who once made him crawl between his legs was given a post. Each sum is a verdict. The phrase means returning a kindness out of all proportion to it.

Examples

English: "He never forgot who had lent him the deposit, and it showed twenty years later"

Chinese: 当年借他押金的人，二十年后他依然记得