comeuppance
noun

- a punishment or fate that someone deserves

- a person’s bad luck that is considered to be a fair and deserved punishment for something bad that they have done

- a deserved rebuke or penalty

Oxford Dictionaries / The Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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ORIGIN

"Comeuppance" meaning “punishment that one deserves” is from 1859. According to the Oxford English Dictionary and other sources, it probably derives from to “come up” before a judge or court of law, and thus getting deserved punishment.

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SISYPHUS’ SOLUTION

Sisyphus is a figure from Greek mythology, who as king of Corinth, became infamous for his general trickery and twice cheating death. He ultimately got his COMEUPPANCE when Zeus dealt him the eternal punishment of forever rolling a boulder up a mountain in the depths of Hades.

In his book 'The Philosophy of Recursive Thinking', German author Manfred Kopfer suggested a creative solution for Sisyphus’ punishment: every time Sisyphus reaches the top of the mountain, he breaks off a stone from the mountain and carries it down to the lowest point. This way, the mountain will eventually be levelled and the stone cannot roll down anymore.

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THE TOWEL THIEVES’ COMEUPPANCE
A way for hotels to fight back against towel thieves

A company in America has come up with a way to stop hotel guests from stealing linens. The radio-frequency identification chips designed by Linen Technology Tracking can be put in towels, sheets and bathrobes to keep track of stock and, more importantly, to ensure their return when light-fingered guests forget their manners.

Any given month, hotels can lose 5 to 20 percent of towels, sheets and robes. The economies to be made from the chips, which will work through 300 washes, also sound rather impressive. One of the three hotels using them is reportedly saving $16,000 a month by reducing the number of pool towels stolen from 4,000 to 750 — an almost unbelievable 130 a day.

Source: Business Travel - The Economist

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SYNONYMS
a negative outcome which is justly deserved:

admonition, castigation, chastening, chastisement, COMEUPPANCE, damages, deserts, deserved fate, disciplinary action, dose of one’s own medicine, due reward, dues, hell to pay, just deserts, justice, just punishment, payback, penalization, penalties, penalty, poetic justice, punishment, punitive action, punitive measure, punitive measures, rap, reparation, retaliation, retribution, retributive justice, revenge, vengeance, what’s coming to one, what’s coming to you, what is coming to one, what is due, what is merited, what one is asking for, what one deserves

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“Sooner or later, people who do bad things tend to get their COMEUPPANCE.”

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and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40