Give a dog a bad name and hang it - English Proverb

Meaning:

 One can always find a reason for what one wants to do.

Alternative:

He who has a mind to beat his dog will easily find a stick

Illustrative Story:

The stream ran down the hills. Its water was cool, clear and clean. So animals and birds came to the stream to quench their thirst. Some of them splashed around in the water too.

A wolf came out of its lair. It was feeling terribly hungry. It moved through the jungle which lay around the stream. It walked round and round. "If only I could get a rabbit or a baby boar! Anything will do." But it could not find any prey. Finally it decided to go to the stream and fill up its stomach with water. "That will at least make me feel better."

It came to its favourite spot. There the water ran down a slope. The wolf bent down to drink. Then its eyes fell on a little lamb. The lamb stood a little distance away. It was also drinking water from the stream.

"That lamb would do," the wolf told itself. It howled, angrily, "You silly lamb. How dare you dirty the water?"The lamb shivered with fright. It looked all around. Then it saw the big fat wolf, its mouth wide open, its tongue hanging out.

The lamb wished it could get away. But there was no way it could escape. It stopped drinking. In a pleasing tone, it told the wolf, "Oh Great Wolf! I can't do that. I am standing downstream. Water flows from you to me."

The wolf scowled. What the lamb said was true. It was logical. But the wolf was not after logic. What it wanted was food. So it scoffed at the lamb and said, " then it must have been your mother who dirtied the water, last time I came here to drink." The lamb protested, "Go and find my mother then and ask her."

"I have no time for that. You have to pay for your mother's crime." Saying this the wolf pounced on the lamb, killed it and made a meal of it.

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