you may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Also seen as: you might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb · you may as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb · you might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb
It's just as bad to commit a small offense as a large one
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “you may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb” mean?
It's just as bad to commit a small offense as a large one Literally: being executed for stealing a sheep or a lamb
Is “you may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.