In olden times a person found guilty of sheep-stealing was sentenced to death
because stealing a lamb was as great a crime as stealing a sheep and the
penalty was the same, the thief might just as well steal the larger animal and
so have more meat for himself and his family. The modern meaning of the
proverb is similar to In for a penny, in for a pound.

> ‘Dad said I was to be home from the dance by eleven o’clock, but I enjoyed
myself so much that it was midnight before I realized it, so I though I might
as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb and stopped on till the end.’