- English translation
The cheat ends up tripping over his own game pieces.
- Literal wording
The one who cheats at the game slips up among his own playing stones.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying holds that dishonesty carries its own undoing. A player who cheats at siga, a board game played with stones as counters, eventually blunders with the very pieces he was manipulating; the 'fall' is a mistake, not a physical tumble, and his trickery becomes his defeat and exposure.
Applied beyond games, it reaches anyone who tricks or manipulates others, reminding us that schemers and frauds are not as clever as they believe. Their deceptions tend to collapse under their own weight, leaving them both the loser and the one whose cheating is laid bare.
- When it is used
Suitable when someone who relied on cheating or underhanded tricks slips up through their own maneuvers and is caught out. It works as a wry remark after the exposure, or as a warning to someone tempted to cut corners dishonestly.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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