春秋时代，邹国和鲁国两国打起了仗。
邹穆公对孟子说：“我的官员们死了三十三个，却没有一个老百姓为他们牺牲。我想杀掉那些不帮忙的人，但是人数太多，我不能都杀了。我该怎么办呢？”
孟子回答说：“在饥荒的年份里，您的人民中，很多老弱病残死在山沟里，年轻力壮的人逃荒去了，差不多有上千人吧。而您的粮仓满满当当，国库装满了财宝，可是您的官员们没有告诉您人民的困境。这是他们对人民不关心、伤害人民的表现。”
曾子说：“小心，小心啊！您现在对别人做的事情，将来别人也会回报给您。”
所以，现在正是人民在回报给官员们。
您不要怪罪人民吧！
您只要实行仁政，人民自然会亲近您，愿意为您去牺牲。
“出乎尔者，反乎尔者”这句话，原来比喻你怎么对待别人，别人就会怎么对待你。
后来人们把它简化成“出尔反尔”，用来比喻一个人的言行前后矛盾，反复无常。
During the Spring and Autumn period, the states of Zou and Lu were at war.
The Duke of Zou asked Mencius, "Thirty-three of my officials have died, but not a single commoner has sacrificed their life for them. I want to kill those who did not help, but there are too many. What should I do?"
Mencius replied, "In years of famine, many of your people, the elderly, the weak, and the sick, died in the valleys, while the strong and able-bodied fled to seek food. There must have been nearly a thousand of them. Yet your granaries were full and your treasury was overflowing with treasure, but your officials did not tell you of the people's plight. This shows their lack of concern and harm towards the people."
Zengzi said, "Be careful, be careful! Whatever you do to others, they will repay you in kind."
So now the people are repaying the officials.
Do not blame the people!
As long as you practice benevolent government, the people will naturally be close to you and willing to sacrifice for you.
"What you put out, returns to you" originally meant that people would treat you the way you treated them.
Later, it was simplified to 'going back on one's word', used to describe a person's contradictory and unpredictable words and actions.
