贼喊捉贼 — Chinese idiom
贼喊捉贼
zéi hǎn zhuō zéi
Traditional: 賊喊捉賊
Meaning
- lit. a thief crying "Stop the thief!"
- fig. to accuse sb of a theft and try to sneak away oneself
- to cover up one's misdeeds by shifting the blame onto others
Character by character
- 贼zéithief, traitor; cunning, sly
- 喊hǎnto shout, to yell, to call out; to howl; to cry
- 捉zhuōto clutch, to grasp, to seize
- 贼zéithief, traitor; cunning, sly
Idioms sharing a character
- 乱臣贼子 luàn chén zéi zǐ
- 做贼心虚 zuò zéi xīn xū
- 擒贼擒王 qín zéi qín wáng
- 民贼独夫 mín zéi dú fū
- 独夫民贼 dú fū mín zéi
- 认贼作父 rèn zéi zuò fù
- 贼眉鼠眼 zéi méi shǔ yǎn
- 关门捉贼 guān mén zhuō zéi
- 人喊马嘶 rén hǎn mǎ sī
- 大喊大叫 dà hǎn dà jiào
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.