chickens come home to roost

Idioms and Phrases

The consequences of doing wrong always catch up with the wrongdoer, as in Now that you're finally admitting your true age, no one believes you—chickens come home to roost . The fact that chickens usually come home to rest and sleep has long been known, but the idea was used figuratively only in 1809, when Robert Southey wrote, “Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost” ( The Curse of Kehama ).