The greater the number of laws and enactments, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

This saying is attributed to Laozi (Lao Tzu), the semi-legendary figure associated with early Daoism and traditionally dated to the late Zhou period (often 6th–4th century BCE). It reflects a recurring theme in the Dao De Jing: skepticism toward heavy-handed governance and moralizing regulation. In the Warring States-era background of competing states, expanding bureaucracies, and proliferating legal codes, Daoist writers often argued that social disorder is aggravated—not cured—by intrusive rulemaking. The line appears in a chapter that contrasts elaborate state control with the Daoist ideal of minimal interference (wuwei), suggesting that overregulation can provoke the very behaviors it seeks to suppress.

The quote argues that multiplying laws can be counterproductive: when rules become numerous and complex, they create incentives and opportunities to evade them, encourage corruption, and turn ordinary life into a field of technical violations. Rather than producing virtue, an overregulated society may produce more “thieves and robbers,” both literally and metaphorically—people who exploit loopholes, game the system, or resist authority. In Daoist terms, this is a symptom of rulers departing from the Dao: instead of cultivating simplicity and conditions in which people can live naturally, they impose artificial constraints that generate resentment and cunning. The line is less an endorsement of lawlessness than a warning about governance that substitutes coercive regulation for wise, restrained leadership.

1) “The more laws and restrictions there are, the poorer people become… the more thieves and robbers there will be.”
2) “The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people become… the more thieves and robbers there are.”
3) “The more rules and regulations, the more thieves and robbers.”