The injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales.

The saying points to a common moral asymmetry: people tend to judge harms they commit by one standard (intentions, excuses, minimization) while judging harms they suffer by another (felt pain, indignation, a demand for redress). In effect, wrongdoing is often “light” to the doer and “heavy” to the victim. Attributed to Aesop, it fits the ethical tenor of many fables, which expose self-serving rationalizations and urge a more impartial measure of justice. Read as a warning, it invites empathy and self-scrutiny: to act fairly, we must try to weigh our own injuries to others as seriously as we weigh injuries done to us.