"It's Better to Lose an Eye than Your Name"

An ancient Greek saying, meaning that you would suffer less if you lost your eye than if you lost your good reputation (name).
"Good reputation" is a virtue prized highly by Greeks, which is probably why this ancient saying has survived 3000 years and more and it is still being taught to our children today.
Unfortunately, not all our children heed their teachings and some of them become greedy, reckless, snatching little bastards! Or big bastards. After all, the ancient Greek pragmatists bequeathed us with still another saying: "Who can have the honey and not take a taste of it?" 
It seems some Greeks did find themselves in a position to possess or be in charge of some honey, and taking a large ladle partook freely from it. This had as a result that ALL Greeks suddenly lost their name (good reputation)!
But enough metaphors. Graft, theft, embezzlement, corruption are not new vices and Greeks did not invent them, at least not in modern years. (They may have learned from the examples of others!) There is a deep seated feeling in Greeks, especially after the complete degradation of Greece during World War II, or even before that, from the 400-year Ottoman occupation of Greece, that they (Greeks) are somehow being taken advantage of, that breaking laws and regulations is a desirable "feat" since these laws were imposed by "the enemy".
Not that every Greek is a rebel who cheats, steals and lies at every turn! On the contrary, most Greeks, like most everyone, are honest, good, law-abiding citizens that wouldn't dare create problems for themselves or anyone else. However, this "rebel mentality" resides deep in the psyche of so many that it is deemed better to turn a blind eye to infractions of the law by others than rat on them to the authorities. A climate of "tolerance" for the "cheaters" has been born, therefore, making the problem so insidiously difficult for the authorities to deal with.
And then some people carried it too far. They took so much of the "honey" that the jar was empty when there came time for the reckoning. And Greeks immediately got "a bad name" among their peers in the EU (who may have been tasting the honey too but gosh! they would never admit that!!) And who better to become a scapegoat for of all of EU's problems than the black sheep with the bad rep?
There are many in Greece now that would rather be half-blind than black-listed, but the deed is done and the poor, honest, law-abiding citizens (it's always the poor, honest, law-abiding citizens) will pay for it whether they can afford it or not. And they CAN'T afford it since most of them are living on the verge of poverty. But that's the topic of another discussion.