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onraglanroadyesterday at 8:33 PM1 replyview on HN

No, doesn't mean that either.

People would sell piglets and would try to sell "a pig in a poke" (where a poke is a bag).

That's why you don't buy a pig in a poke because you can't see what you're buying.

Letting the cat out of the bag is because you've revealed that it was a cat rather than a piglet. You've revealed the deception.


Replies

hathawshyesterday at 8:48 PM

Thanks for the correction. In my own words, to commit to memory: once "the cat is out of the bag", the point is not that it's difficult to put the cat back in, the point is that we now know it's a cat and putting it back is not relevant.