A fault once denied is twice committed.

Understand the thought

Meaning in plain English

Denying a known mistake can add dishonesty to the original fault. Trying to avoid responsibility may deepen the harm and make repair more difficult.

What the words are saying

The proverb counts the initial fault and the denial as two wrongs. Its point is that covering a mistake can create a second problem: another person may be misled, wrongly blamed or prevented from fixing what happened. A truthful account can be uncomfortable, but it offers a clearer basis for a remedy. Twice is a moral comparison rather than an exact measure of severity. The word fault also matters: someone who disputes an unsupported accusation is not thereby committing another wrong. The saying is best applied where the mistake is established and the denial knowingly contradicts it.

Everyday example

A worker who accidentally deletes a shared draft admits it promptly, allowing the team to restore a backup instead of wasting time investigating a false software failure.

When to use it

Use it when hiding an established mistake would mislead others or obstruct repair.

Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.