Once the state of Jin was bothered by the prevalence(流行，普遍) of thieves, and this plagued Marguis Jin.

He was very happy when he heard that Zheng Yong could identify the thieves' misdeeds just by observing their appearances. He was confident that in no time there would be no thieves any more.

But Zhao Wenzi reminded him that this method could not put an end to theft in this country. Before long, the thieves killed Zheng Yong. Zhao Wenzi advised the Marguis and said, "If your Majesty wants to exterminate theft, and you should select virtuous and talented people, and entrust them with important posts. As long as everyone in the court is of fine breeding and the politics is clean and just, the populace(平民) will be influenced and good social custom can be formed. When people have a sense of honor, there will be no thief at all."

有一段時間晉國盜賊橫行，晉侯很為此事苦惱。

當他得知郄雍能通過觀察盜賊的面貌發現他們的罪行時，心中非常高興，以為消滅全國的盜賊指日可待。

趙文子卻提醒他用這種方法是抓不完盜賊的。不久，郄雍被盜賊殺死。趙文子進諫說：“大王，您要想徹底消滅盜賊，就應該選拔賢能的人，委以重任。而且只要朝廷中人人有教養，政治也清明，民眾自會受感化，就能形成良好的社會風氣。人民有了羞恥心，就絕對不會去做盜賊了。”