# No good deed goes unpunished
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 3, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742 "2011-07-03T19:55:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@untold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/untold)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/1 "2011-07-03T19:55:01Z")
What does “No good deed goes unpunished” mean? Is it petty?
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/2 "2011-07-03T20:01:21Z")
It’s ironic. It’s twisting the saying “No good deed goes unrewarded.”, which obviously has the sort of karmic notion that if you do good, good things will happen to you. Obviously, that’s not always the case, hence, “No good deed goes unpunished”. It’s used to refer to when you go out of your way to help someone and that leads to negative consequences for you.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/3 "2011-07-03T21:07:29Z")
Right. It is when someone does a good thing overall and suffers for it.
Here is one real-life recent example of it.
[Man Turns in Found Bank Bag Containing $17,000, Gets Fined $500.](http://www.geekosystem.com/man-turns-in-17000-dollars-fined-500/). That one isn’t a perfect example because he did lie a little on the details but that is it basically.
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### Author:  [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/4 "2011-07-04T03:39:15Z")
One of the traditional examples of this is whistleblowing. Those who uncover and make public significant immoral actions of various organizations are often punished for it, by loss of employment, blacklisting, and so on.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/5 "2011-07-04T03:41:04Z")
It’s a restatement of “life isn’t fair.”
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### Author:  [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/6 "2011-07-04T04:02:05Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> It’s a restatement of “life isn’t fair.”
Well, no, it’s not. As others before you stated, it means that you will suffer negative consequences for being altruistic.
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### Author:  [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/7 "2011-07-04T04:02:19Z")
It’s when you find a bankbag in a parking lot on a college campus, decide to do the right thing and turn it in, have to wait for the police there, they take 45 minutes to show up, which makes you late for your Circuits II class, which makes your asshole professor refuse to accept your homework because “he doesn’t accept late work, no exceptions.” Then a year later you go to claim it, and the police “lost” it somehow, and tell you there is no recourse.
TL;DR, Find lost money, turn it in, get a B in a class.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/8 "2011-07-04T05:21:24Z")
It’s proverbial in Arab culture, known as the “[reward of Sinnimar](http://www.al-hakawati.net/english/Stories_Tales/story33.asp)” after an Arabic folktale about an architect who built the greatest palace in history for a king who requested it and promised a great reward for it. Then the king was so pleased with the result he had the architect put to death. So it’s proverbial for good deeds earning punishment in return.
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### Author:  [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/9 "2011-07-04T05:43:10Z")
> [@untold](#):
>
> What does “No good deed goes unpunished” mean?
If you’re _Wicked_, it means $2,000,000 a week.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/10 "2011-07-04T06:59:43Z")
> [@Johanna](#):
>
> It’s proverbial in Arab culture, known as the “[reward of Sinnimar](http://www.al-hakawati.net/english/Stories_Tales/story33.asp)” after an Arabic folktale about an architect who built the greatest palace in history for a king who requested it and promised a great reward for it. Then the king was so pleased with the result he had the architect put to death. So it’s proverbial for good deeds earning punishment in return.
That’s interesting. A similar legend exists of [St. Basil’s Cathedral](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil%27s_Cathedral) in Moscow. (According to the legend, the architect was blinded instead of being put to death.)
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### Author:  [@Michael\_of\_Lucan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_of_Lucan)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/11 "2011-07-04T08:43:24Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#):
>
> One of the traditional examples of this is whistleblowing. Those who uncover and make public significant immoral actions of various organizations are often punished for it, by loss of employment, blacklisting, and so on.
People have a very innocent view of whistleblowing. While there are a few genuine whistleblowers, the majority do it to get revenge on an employer for real or perceived slights.
I have known two cases of whistleblowing. In both cases, the employee was on suspension, pending an enquiry which would lead to him being sacked for serious misbehaviour. To get revenge, each of them filed whistleblowing reports about their employers.
In one dreadful case, the employee was being fired for a serious breach of industry regulations. (I don’t want to be more specific about a real case.) So, he reported his company for HIS OWN breach of regulations. The media reported him as a worthy whistleblower being victimised by his employers, when he was actually victimising them.
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### Author:  [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/12 "2011-07-04T09:31:34Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#):
>
> Well, no, it’s not. As others before you stated, it means that you will suffer negative consequences for being altruistic.
“Will”?
It’s a jokey way of saying that _sometimes_ doing the right thing doesn’t pay off.
I’m pretty sure it _doesn’t_ mean “Altruism is bad, therefore you should be a selfish shit because everybody else is.” Unless that’s how you _choose_ to interpret it.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/13 "2011-07-04T15:06:10Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#):
>
> Well, no, it’s not. As others before you stated, it means that you will suffer negative consequences for being altruistic.
And in a fair world, this wouldn’t happen.
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/14 "2011-07-04T15:14:39Z")
I was reminded of this phrase in the thread about stepping into the middle of a domestic dispute, as posters point out that sometimes both the abuser and victim will turn on you.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/587742/15 "2011-07-04T15:26:05Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> And in a fair world, this wouldn’t happen.
The saying is more narrow than “life isn’t fair,” however. It focuses on the specific case of doing good and being punished for it. It’s also unfair to do evil and be rewarded for it. Your characterization doesn’t really fit.