Whether a knife falls on a melon, or the other way round, it is the melon that gets damaged.?

Question

So goes a saying in Hindi (India). I am looking for a similar saying in English.

Answer 1

"Whether the stone hits the pitcher
or the pitcher hits the stone
it's going to be bad for the pitcher"

spoken by Sancho Panza in the "Man of La Mancha" song "A Little Gossip"
http://www.lyricsdownload.com/man-of-la-mancha-soundtrack-a-little-gossip-lyrics.html

Just checked out *Don Quixote* --the work on which "Man of La Mancha" is based -- to find which of Sancho's many proverbs looks like this .. and I found it near the end of volume 2, chapter 43. In my English translation it reads:

"Whether the pitcher hits the stone, or the stone hits the pitcher, 'tis the worse for the pitcher."

Some notes on what's going on in the book at that point -
http://www.bookrags.com/notes/dq/PART98.htm