Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 16: The Divine and the Demonic Natures

Bhagavad Gita 16.12

āśāpāśaśatairbaddhāḥ kāmakrodhaparāyaṇāḥ | īhante kāmabhogārthamanyāyenārthasañcayān ||

Bound by hundreds of ties of expectation, given over to desire and anger, they strive to pile up wealth by unjust means in order to gratify their desires.

Modern context

Bound by hundreds of ropes of expectation. Every hope is a rope; every 'I must have this' is another knot. The image is of a person tied down from every direction by their own wanting. And then, because the desires are so many, they gather wealth by unjust means. Expectation leads to compromise, and compromise to wrongdoing.