escape the bear and fall to the lion

escape the bear and fall to the lion

To avoid a frightening or problematic situation, only to end up in a worse one later. A: "After I swerved to avoid hitting a pedestrian, I wound up in oncoming traffic, and my car was totaled." B: "That's awful. You escaped the bear and fell to the lion." I dropped out of grad school to avoid racking up more student loan debt, only to become ill and fall into major medical debt. I guess I escaped the bear and fell to the lion. Because I would have taken a ball right to the face, I tried to get out of the way—but my foot got stuck and I tore ligaments in my knee. I tell ya, you escape the bear and fall to the lion.

See also: and, bear, escape, fall, lion, to

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