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What is the best Spanish translation of the English idiom, What goes around comes around?

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Possible duplicate Interpretation of quotes or famous sayings –  César Jan 12 '12 at 15:00
@César: Please take a look at my meta question. –  jrdioko Apr 18 '12 at 21:41

2 Answers 2

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Apart from the ones given by user1074377. I'd add these ones:

Lo que se siembra se recoge

which means that good actions will lead to good results and bad actios will lead to misfortune, comparing the results with the sowing and the harvest.

Quien siembra vientos recoge tempestades

which means that bad actions (metaphorically referred as winds) will bring bad results(metaphorically referred as storms).

In Spain "A cada puerco le llega su sábado" is said as

A cada cerdo le llega su San Martín

because the day of "San Martín" (November 11th) is a traditional day for the slaughter of that animal. So they compare the day of the slaughter to the day when the person has to pay for his sins.

As suggested by Gonzalo Medina (thanks):

El que las hace las paga

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El que las hace las paga could be another possible translation. –  Gonzalo Medina Apr 19 '12 at 2:54
@GonzaloMedina thanks I've added it to the answer –  Javi Apr 19 '12 at 7:08

Idioms like this generally don't translate directly to Spanish (or most languages) so there's really not a perfectly equivalent translation.

However, You can take the idea of the proverb and find a proverb that has a similar meaning in Spanish.

Some of my favorites:

"El mundo da vueltas"

"Uno recibe lo que se merece"

"A cada puerco le llega su sábado"

You can find heaps of proverbs with same/similar meanings by doing a Google search.

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I haven't added translations as all of these and more can be found with one quick Google search –  Kage Jan 12 '12 at 18:52

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