好心倒做了驴肝肺

好心倒做了驢肝肺
hǎoxīndàozuòlelǘgānfèi
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 good intentions are mistaken for malice
  2. 2 no good deed goes unpunished

Examples

Wǒ bāng tā bānjiā, tā hái xián wǒ duōshì, zhēnshi hǎoxīn dào zuòle lǘgānfèi.
I helped her move and she complained I was nosy — talk about good intentions being taken for malice.
Tíxǐng tóngshì què bèi mà, hǎoxīn dào zuòle lǘgānfèi, yǐhòu zài yě bù guǎn le.
I gave a colleague a heads-up and got yelled at — good will turned into ingratitude. I won't bother again.

Tips

usage
Colloquial complaint phrase. Also written as 好心当成驴肝肺 or 好心当作驴肝肺. The image: you offered your good heart (好心) but it got 'mistaken for' (当成 / ) a donkey's liver and lungs — i.e. coarse, worthless, unwanted.
memory
Donkey liver and lungs (驴肝肺) appear elsewhere in Chinese as the symbol of bad/foul innards — to think someone has 肚子驴肝肺 means to suspect them of black-hearted intent. The idiom riffs on that: your 好心 was misread as 驴肝肺.

Stroke Order

hǎo
xīn
dào
zuò
le
gān
fèi