Definition

1. Verb phrase:
   • To cry for help (in a village context): The primary meaning refers to the act of shouting or crying out loudly to alert the village community, typically in a situation of danger, theft, or emergency, to summon assistance.
   • To cry foul hypocritically / To raise a false alarm: A figurative and common meaning describes a person who is themselves guilty of a misdeed (like theft) but pretends to be a victim by crying out for help, thereby shifting blame or diverting attention. It implies hypocrisy and deceit.

Usage Examples

• Literal:
  • Bị kẻ cướp tấn công, ông lão vội la làng. (Attacked by a robber, the old man quickly cried for help to the village.)
• Figurative (Hypocritical action):
  • Hắn là kẻ vừa ăn cướp vừa la làng. (He is a thief who cries "stop thief!" / He is a hypocrite who cries foul.)
  • Công ty gây ô nhiễm lại la làng khi bị phạt. (The polluting company cried foul when fined.)

Advanced Usage

• The phrase is almost exclusively used in its figurative sense in modern Vietnamese to criticize dishonest behavior where the perpetrator pretends to be a victim.

Variants and Related Words

• La (v): to shout, to yell.
  • Đừng la lên như vậy! (Don't shout like that!)
• Kêu làng (v): a less common synonym with the same meaning as "la làng".
  • Nó hư mà còn biết kêu làng. (He did wrong but still knows how to cry for help hypocritically.)

Synonyms

• Cry foul: to complain unfairly about something one is responsible for.
• Raise a false alarm: to cause unnecessary alarm, often deliberately.
• Protest one's innocence hypocritically: to deny guilt deceitfully.

Related Idioms

• Vừa ăn cướp vừa la làng: This is the full, proverbial idiom. It directly translates to "to be a thief and cry 'stop thief!'" and is used to describe a person who commits a crime and then acts as the victim to cover it up. It encapsulates the core meaning of hypocrisy and deceit.
  • Hành động của anh ta đúng là vừa ăn cướp vừa la làng. (His actions are precisely those of a thief crying "stop thief!")

1. (xấu) Cry for help
   • Vừa ăn cướp, vừa la làng
     A thief crying "Stop thief!"