Spanish equivalent to "he can dish it out but he can't take it"

Question

There's an idiom in English for a person who criticises others but when someone else criticises them, they don't like it.

Definition from Cambridge English dictionary:

Someone can dish it out but he or she can’t take it: someone easily criticizes other people but does not like it when other people criticize him or her.

Example: He’s mad at me for teasing him – he can dish it out, but he can’t take it!

We also use don't dish (out) what you can't take to tell someone that they're criticising others but when someone else criticises them, they're easily offended.

Does Spanish have the same idiom? Or what would be the closest idiom to that?

Answer 1

I don't know if there's a better way to say it, but in Spanish I would use the following:

Tiene la lengua afilada y la piel muy fina.

First, we have afilado which according to the dictionary has the meaning of "hiriente, mordaz" ('hurtful'). Second, we say that a person "tiene la piel muy fina" (literally, 'has a thin skin') when that person can't stand to be criticized. You have an example in this article:

Eso sí, que nadie de la oposición ose a decirles nada a ellos porque tienen una "piel muy fina" y se irritan de una manera exagerada.

And an example of usage of the whole expression:

No se puede tener la lengua tan afilada y la piel tan fina.

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Answer 2

One idiom we use in Spain is : Puño de hierro, mandíbula de cristal. The direct translation in English would be: Iron fists, jaws made of glass.

Answer 3

There's a saying of biblical origin in Spanish which says:

"Ver la paja en el ojo ajeno y no la viga en el propio" (Luke 6:41 Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?)

Answer 4

You can say:

Se lleva, pero no se aguanta

That's something we say in Mexico, and its by far the most direct translation.