A theme across cultures
Justice in proverb literature is rarely the courtroom kind. It is the slower, quieter form: the eventual return of an action to the person who took it. Chickens come home to roost. What goes around comes around. Allah yaqdir.
Languages differ on whether the agent doing the returning is fate, God, time, or simply human memory. The faith placed in the eventual return tells you a lot about the culture’s history with disappointment.
The pot calls the kettle black.
the pot calls the kettle black
Why English wisdom catches the pot calling the kettle black — and how Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin name the same hypocrisy with very different teeth.