A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

sting see if you gently touch a NETTLE it’ll sting you for your pains.
stink see the FISH always stinks from the head downwards; FISH and guests smell after three days; the more you STIR it the worse it stinks.
The more you STIR it the worse it stinks

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  1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs II. vi. The more we stur a tourde, the wours it will stynke. 1639 J. CLARKE Paramiologia Anglo-Latina 200 The more you stirre it the worse it stinkes. 1706 P. A. MOTTEUX tr. Cervantes’ Don Quixote II. xii. The more ye stir, the more ‘twill stink. 1929 T. COBB Crime without Clue xx. The more we stir the worse it stinks, inspector. One would never imagine there were so many shady histories in this harmless-looking village. 1971 H. VAN DYKE Dead Piano iv. I could tell you. .. But like my mama always used to say, ‘The more you stir shit, the more it stinks.’ ^action and consequence; busybodies
  

stir see also you should KNOW a man seven years before you stir his fire.
A STITCH in time saves nine
The proverb was originally a couplet. The number nine was apparently introduced fancifully for the sake of assonance.

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  1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 6291 A Stitch in Time May save nine. 1797 F. BAILY Journal 30 Apr. (1856) 268 After a little while we acquired a method of keeping her [a boat] in the middle of the stream, by watching the moment she began to vary, and thereby verifying the vulgar proverb, ‘A stitch in time saves nine.’ 1868 READE & BOUCICAULT Foul Play I. ix. Repairing the ship. Found a crack or two in her inner skin. .. A stitch in time saves nine. 1979 Homes & Gardens June 105 Looking after oneself is like looking after a house: a stitch in time..
  

STOLEN fruit is sweet
The proverb is used in a variety of forms, principally in allusion to the temptation of Eve (Genesis iii. 6): e.g. c 1390 CHAUCER Parson’s Tale 1. 332 The fleesh hadde delit in the beautee of the fruyt defended [forbidden]. See also the next entry.

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  1614 T. ADAMS Devil’s Banquet III. 98 But as the Proverbe hath it.. Apples are sweet, when they are plucked in the Gardiners absence. Eve liked no Apple in the Garden so well as the forbidden. 1668 F. KIRKMAN English Rogue II. B1^V So eager are these sort of people to buy any thing that is unlicensed, following the Proverb, that stollen meat is sweetest. 1855 GASKELL North & South II. vi. I can remember.. your being in some disgrace.. for stealing apples. .. Some one had told you that stolen fruit tasted sweetest.