qiè gōu zhě zhū , qiè guó zhě hóu
steal a hook and they hang you, steal the whole country and they make you a prince (idiom, from Daoist classic Zhuangzi 莊子|庄子[Zhuang1 zi3])
窃
qiè
to steal
钩
gōu
variant of 鉤|钩[gou1]
者
zhě
(after a verb or adjective) one who (is) ...
诛
zhū
to put (a criminal) to death
,
,
国
guó
country; nation; state
侯
hóu
marquis, second of the five orders of ancient Chinese nobility 五等爵位[wu3 deng3 jue2 wei4]