Once upon a time, there was a shepherd who kept several sheep.

One morning, the shepherd discovered that one of his sheep was missing.It turned out that, during the night, a wolf had stolen his sheep through a hole in the sheep pen.

His neighbor suggested to him: "You should fix the pen and cover the hole right away."

But the shepherd said: "The sheep is already lost, so I don't need to repair it." And so he rejected the neighbor's suggestion.

The next morning, he discovered that another sheep was missing.Once again, the wolf stole the sheep through the hole in the fence.

The shepherd regretted not taking the neighbor's advice.So he plugged the hole to secure the sheep pen.

From then on, no more sheep was stolen by the wolf.

Therefore, the story tell us that it is common to make mistakes and if you can learn from mistakes and tried to mend them, you can avoid suffering heavier losses.

中国成语故事：亡羊补牢

从前有一个牧民，养了几十只羊，白天放牧，晚上赶进一个用柴草和木桩等物围起来的羊圈内。

一天早晨，这个牧民去放羊，发现羊少了一只。原来羊圈破了个窟窿，夜间有狼从窟窿钻了进来，把一只羊叼走了。

邻居劝告他说：“赶快把羊圈修一修，堵上那个窟窿吧。” 他说：“羊已经丢了，还去修羊圈干什么呢？”他没有接受邻居的好心劝告。

第二天早上，他去放羊，发现又少了一只羊。原来狼又从窟窿钻进羊圈，又叼走了一只羊。

这位牧民很后悔没有接受邻居的劝告，去及时采取补救措施。于是，他赶紧堵上那个窟窿，又从整体进行加固，把羊圈修得牢牢实实的。

从此，这个牧民的羊就再也没有被野狼叼走过了。

此成语表示，犯了错误，遭到挫折，这是常见的现象。只要能认真吸取教训，及时采取补救措施，就可以避免继续犯错误，而遭受更大的损失。