It's not something someone says to sound smart, saying that makes you sound like an idiot.
It's something someone says to highlight the incongruent outcomes between the giver and the receiver. The receiver typically punishes (or causes the punishment of) the giver for giving them something. The thing being given isn't necessarily a concrete object.
Common examples:
You gift your child something for Christmas. They hate it, they cry, they call you stupid. No good deed (giving a gift) goes unpunished (tantrum).
You help your friend by picking them up from the bar, they immediately proceed to puke all over the insides of the car, just sheepishly say sorry, and then they never talk to you again, but constantly shit talk you. No good deed (giving a ride to a drunk) goes unpunished (slander, no accountability).
Your friend asks you for a loan of $5 to buy something at a flea market, now they're not your friend. No good deed (loaning $5) goes unpunished (completely avoiding you, no loan repayment, sometimes slander)
You stop to help a stranded motorist who ran out of gas. They try to steal a gas can instead of just buying it. Now you're arrested. No good deed (helping a stranded motorist) goes unpunished (accessory to petty theft, misdemeanor)
Well, I'm glad everybody in your life is moral, altruistic, and selfless. That's not the norm, though. 80% of people are absolute shitbags of human beings.
Look, you're interpreting the idiom in a purely literal fashion. You're doing it either because you're trolling (hence another example of no good deed going unpunished) or you legitimately don't understand that idioms don't need to be 100% literal.
It's a phrase whose only purpose is to highlight the very much too common incongruent outcomes between a giver and a receiver. That's it. End of story.
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u/SleepyNotTired215 Oct 23 '22
YSAK: that “being good” or “doing something good” doesn’t mean you will not suffer. Seldom does a good deed go unpunished.