Chinese to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature Common Expression

This expression comes from Sima Qian's Shi Ji "Historical Accounts." The original goes as follows:

"朱公居陶，生少子。少子及壮，而朱公中男杀人，囚于楚。朱公曰：“杀人而死，职也。然吾闻千金之子不死于市。”告其少子往视之。乃装黄金千溢，置褐器中，载以一牛车。且遣其少子，朱公长男固请欲行，朱公不听。长男曰：“家有长子曰家督，今弟有罪，大人不遣，乃遗少弟，是吾不肖。”欲自杀。其母为言曰：“今遣少子，未必能生中子也，而先空亡长男，柰何？”朱公不得已而遣长子，为一封书遗故所善庄生。"

The story goes further that Tao Ju's second son was eventually executed in 楚 because his eldest son didn't exactly follow his instructions and wanted to save money on the rescue. It is a good lesson has to be learned by whom who want to achieve tough jobs. However, my question is not about the lesson.

Question: How to translated this expression properly into English? The key point is to have an English sentence which exactly expresses the philosophy behind the story quoted above.

TIA!