«اِلْغَلَطْ مَرْدُودْ»

The saying holds that an honest error carries no lasting guilt, because once someone points it out it can be taken back and set right, not merely overlooked. What deserves reproach is a deliberate act, not an accidental slip made without intent.

In practice it works as a gentle plea for leniency. Someone who has blundered, or who wants to excuse another person's blunder, invokes it to say that the matter should be corrected rather than punished or held against anyone.

Say it when apologizing for an unintentional slip, or when reassuring someone who has made one, so that attention shifts from blame to simply fixing the error. It fits settling accounts, correcting a misstatement, or undoing a wrong transaction. It does not excuse deliberate wrongdoing.