贼喊捉贼 — Chinese idiom

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.