- English translation
Asked what he had caught, the fisherman answered: "Even what was already in the net got away."
- Literal wording
They said to the fisherman: "What did you catch?" He said: "What was in the net is gone."
- Meaning and lesson
The fisherman's understated reply admits more than an empty day: the catch already in his net slipped away too, though the net itself was not lost. The saying pictures an effort that ends worse than it began, where the hoped-for addition never arrives and the existing stock is lost in the attempt.
Applied to people, it targets someone who believes a venture has brought fresh profit, only to discover that it has cost them what they owned before. The tone is wry and rueful, pointing to bad luck or misjudgment rather than assigning heavy blame.
- When it is used
Use it to comment on a scheme, deal, or gamble that left someone poorer than before, especially when they expected to come out ahead. It suits rueful remarks about one's own setbacks or sympathetic teasing about another's.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Asked what he had caught, the fisherman answered: "Even what was already in the net got away."