There is a tale about a kind but not wise man who was chopping his dog's tail piece by piece to ease the dog's pain.
The moral of this tale is that half-measures will cost more than a single decisive move. The phrase from the title can be used to criticize half-measures and a suggestion to be more decisive.
Is there an idiom for this in English? The closest translation I can think of is "to refuse to bite the bullet".
To 'rip off the band-aid' is the best I can come up with. A band-aid that is removed slowly will hurt more than one that is ripped off forcefully, and the idiom has the connotation of doing something painful decisively.
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/rip+the+band-aid+off
rip the band-aid off
To do something painful or unpleasant very quickly so that the discomfort, while typically more intense, is short-lived. "Band-Aid" is a brand of adhesive bandages, so it is sometimes capitalized in this usage.
You just need to rip the Band-Aid off and tell them the bad news.
I tend to obsess about things if I don't take decisive action, so I try to rip the band-aid off whenever I can.
The three suggestions posted as I write this—"rip off the Band-aid," "grasp the nettle" and "take the bull by the horns"—focus on the (relative) desirability of confronting a problem or enduring a hardship directly and getting it over with quickly. But the anecdote that the poster asks about focuses on the opposite point: the (relative) undesirability of confronting a problem or enduring a hardship indirectly or slowly. A further element of the original anecdote is the idea that the person inflicting the suffering does so out of imagined kindness. It is rather as if we had a proverbial phrase in English about removing someone's nose with a grindstone instead of a sword stroke in order to be more humane.
I can think of two expressions in English that emphasize slow infliction of harm. The older one appears in John Ray, A Collection of English Proverbs (1678):
One had as good be nibled to death by ducks, or pecked to death by a hen.
Although this expression is usually shortened to "nibbled to death by ducks" or simply "nibbled to death," it also appears in variant forms. For example, from "Speech of Hon. John Kasson of Iowa in the House of Representatives, Saturday, May 6, 1882" (1882):
Mr KASSON. ... Repeatedly has the effort been made for a revision of the tariff, and I can sum up the result by quoting the declaration of a former chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, who said that he found that the bill under his charge “had been nibbled to death by pismires [that is, ants] and kicked to death by grasshoppers."
The newer (but still fairly old) expression evidently reached English from a Chinese legal term, ling-chi. From "Abolition of Torture in Chinese Trials," in The Interpreter (June 1905):
At least we know of one form of cruel death which has been forbidden, and this is that which is technically called Ling-chi, or death by a thousand cuts ; each cut designed to produce torture, but carefully calculated to avoid a prematurely fatal issue.
And from Lyman Cotten, "Why China Sleeps," in The Arena (August 1909):
A party of tourists were being shown through one of the largest cities in China by a guide well versed in the English language. Upon reaching the public execution grounds he explained, with the fluency and vividness as to gruesome details of the usual guide, the different methods of execution in vogue, from simple beheading to slow strangulation and death by a thousand cuts. One of the ladies of the party, much impressed, and, with horror in her voice, exclaimed: "But you don't do such things now?" "Oh no" replied the guide with slightly puzzled manner, "not now: four o'clock."
The expression appears figuratively in English at least as early as "How It's to Be Done," in The Review of Reviews for Australasia (September 20, 1903):
Mr. Tom Mann says he would pile taxes on the land-holder till the guilty wretch is glad to hand his land back to the State ; but this is confiscation in instalments. It is the Chinese punishment of li-kin—death by a thousand cuts—translated into commercial terms. The other Labour leaders dismiss the problem with the reassuring comment that, * Thank God! it's a long way off.
And it has appeared figuratively without explicit reference to the Chinese legal punishment since at least 1913. From Ian Hay, Happy-Go-Lucky (1913):
Willing hands dumped the mummified and inanimate form of Jebson [who had been bound with table napkins and rolled up in a tablecloth] into an armchair, and the unique collection of Sports sat round him in a ring.
Then suddenly Dicky lughed.
That's all, Jebson," he said. We are n't going to do anything else with you. You are not worth it."
Mr. Jebson, who had been expecting the Death by a Thousand Cuts at the very least, merely gaped like a stranded carp. He was utterly demoralised. To a coward, fear of pain is worse than pain itself.
Figurative use of the expression seems to have been especially popular in the first third of the twentieth century in political debates. Thus, for example, we have instances such as this one in remarks by Sir John Simon, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) Official Report (1931) [combined snippets]:
It is no secret if I say that I understand there is some slight difference of view on these benches as to what the Liberal Party are going to do. I myself am a supporter of humane slaughter. My hon. and learned Friend the Member of East Nottingham seems to prefer death by a thousand cuts. But, of course, there is no misunderstanding between us, because, as a matter of fact, the Government do quite understand that, of course, their Bill is never going to pass.
The two expressions that I have suggested lack the element of intended kindness that makes the poster's anecdote so striking, but otherwise they seem reasonably on point. The only idiom I can think of that hints at the mistaken benevolence component of the poster's anecdote is "killing [someone or something] with kindness." Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition (2013) has the following entry for that expression:
kill with kindness Overwhelm or harm someone with mistaken or excessive benevolence. For example, Aunt Mary constantly sends Jan chocolates and cake and other goodies, even though she's been told Jane's on a diet—nothing like killing with kindness. This expression originated as kill with kindness as fond apes do their young (presumably crushing them to death in a hug) and was a proverb by the mid-1500s.
The drawback of this expression is that it suggests complete obliviousness on the "killer's" part to causing harm or pain, whereas the man chopping off his dog's tail by degrees knows that the operation will hurt the dog but imagines that starting at the tip of the tail and chopping his way toward the base will somehow make the pain more endurable.
The positive is "to grasp the nettle".
A nettle is a plant that has many stinging hairs. If you try to pick it, you will be stung. However, it is a common belief that if you pick the plant by grasping it firmly and decisively, then the hairs - instead of stinging - will be crushed and not sting.
OED in the entry for "grasp"
3.a. To seize and hold firmly with the hand. to grasp the nettle: figurative to attack a difficulty boldly.
Journal - Volumes 7-9 - Page 184 British Grassland Society · 1952 In his attempt to grasp the nettle of what is really worth doing in terms of the investment of capital and likely costs and returns on marginal farms and on marginal land , Professor Ellison deals with the results of a critical survey ...
The Courts, Social Science, and School Desegregation edited by Betsy Levin, Willis D. Hawley: Judge Wisdom—having urged in Singleton II that school boards “grasp the nettle” and begin real desegregation—stated:
“We grasp the nettle.” He then plunged into the seven parts of his opinion, justifying his abrupt departure from past precedent, both as to the pace and method of desegregation, with the comment that “‘no army is stronger than an idea whose time has come.’”
In the financial domain, this is known as false economy.
false economy [noun] ... an action [count] or the principle [noncount] that saves money at the beginning but, over a longer period of time, results in more money being wasted than being saved:
- Buying cheap household appliances is a false economy – they're twice as likely to break down.
[Cambridge Dictionary] [modified]
He needs to get it over with.
get (something) over with.
To do, finish, or accomplish something—especially that which is difficult, unpleasant, or undesirable—as promptly or quickly as possible so as to no longer have to think about or deal with it.
I absolutely hate getting blood drawn, so let's just get in there and get it over with! I'm looking forward to getting my final exams over with so I can relax and enjoy my summer break.
Take the bull by the horns suggests tackling a problem in a direct and brave manner. I think it applies to the situation as described in OP's question.
The original expression of chopping the dog's tail by pieces comes from Russia and actually mocks someone not having courage to make a big step, but preferring baby steps, often involving pain to other parties involved. We could say this of someone who has decided to break up with a partner, but instead of saying it directly, they prefer to be more distant, colder, etc, so that the break up happens "naturally" thinking it is more humane. In fact childishly unaware of the much stronger pain they are causing to the partner.
Apparently, the expression disapproves of this cowardly and immature behaviour.
