English equivalents for Spanish sayings

This is to anyone Spanish or English speaker who has the knowledge to help me. A couple of days ago I was asked by a student how to say "Ladrón que roba a ladrón, tiene 100 años de perdón". That's a whole phrase, a saying. I told her I could translate literally, but that wouldn't help very much. Perhaps the saying in English was different. In fact, I had no f...ing idea of what the equivalent for that saying is.

So know I've come here to ask you for help, guys. What's the English equivalent for:

"Ladrón que roba a ladrón, tiene 100 años de perdón"

It would be cool if you post othe equivalents of other sayings as well.

Thanks in advance.

Pete from Peru

I've never heard a saying like that in English. I guess you could just literally translate it as "A thief who robs a thief has 100 years of pardon."

Then there's no equivalent in English? There must be something. I believe the equivalent must be very different, maybe nothing to do with thieves... I don't know. Any other opinions, plz.

Kind regards

Well, I searched on google and I found "It's no crime to steal from a thief." listed as an English equivalent. I had heard that saying before, but I guess I just forgot it.

If the connotation of the Spanish proverb has to do with solidarity and treating one's "own kind" with respect, then I think the English version might be "There is honor even among thieves." That's a fairly common saying.

That isn't what it means. It means that a thief who robs another thief should be forgiven because thieves deserve to be robbed, so you're totally wrong.

You may translate it literally, but that's a much as you can do, each country and language has its own sayings and most of the cases there are no equivalents for those same sayings in other languages.

Therefore if you were to translate it, it would something like this:
"A thief that steals from another thief has 100 years or forgiveness"
Still from my point of view, it sounds awkward in English.

In what sort of circumstances might a Spanish speaker say this phrase? Usually proverbs like these have some sort of situation that they're associated with.

I always heard:
"El que roba a un ladrón tiene cien años de perdón".
Robin Hood would be a good example.

"El que roba a un ladrón tiene cien años de perdón" = "it's no crime to steal from a thief "

I was wondering if there is a comparable saying in spanish for the english version of,"tarred and feathered."