A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

HANG a thief when he’s young, and he’ll no’ steal when he’s old

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  1832 A. HENDERSON Scottish Proverbs 115 Hang a thief when he’s young, and he’ll no [not] steal when he’s auld. 1896 A. CHEVIOT Proverbs of Scotland 126 Hang a thief when he’s young, and he’ll no steal when he’s auld. This was a favourite saying of
  

Lord Justice Clerk Braxfield [Robert MacQueen, Lord Braxfield (1722-99), Scottish judge], who invariably acted upon its teaching. 1979 J. LEASOR Love & Land Beyond x. So much killing. .. It reminds me of the Scots proverb, ‘Hang a thief when he’s young, and he’ll no’ steal when he’s old.’ ^wrong-doers
hang see also a CREAKING door hangs longest; give a DOG a bad name and hang him; every HERRING must hang by its own gill; give a man ROPE enough and he will hang himself.
One might as well be HANGED for a sheep as a lamb
The proverb alludes to the former penalty for sheep-stealing. The idea is present in: 1662 N. ROGERS Rich Fool 253 As some desperate Wretches, Who dispairing of life still act the more villainy, giving this desperate Reason of it, As good be hanged for a great deal, as for a little.

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  1678 J. RAY English Proverbs (ed. 2) 350 As good be hang’d for an old sheep as a young lamb. Somerset. 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 683 As good be hang’d for a Sheep as a Lamb. 1836 MARRYAT Midshipman Easy II. ii. We may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. .. I vote that we do not go on board. 1841 DICKENS Barnaby Rudge liii. Others . . comforted themselves with the homely proverb, that, being hung at all, they might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. 1915 D. H. LAWRENCE Rainbow vi. One might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb. If he had lost this day of his life, he had lost it. 1977 B. PYM Quartet in Autumn xv. Letty .. decided that she might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and make the most of her meal. ■conduct; risk
  

hanged see also if you’re BORN to be hanged then you’ll never be drowned; CONFESS and be hanged; he that has an ILL name is half hanged; LITTLE thieves are hanged, but great ones escape; never mention ROPE in the house of a man who has been hanged.