What does the expression “bear’s service” mean?
Help that does more harm than good is called “медвежья услуга” (“medvezhya usluga”) or “a bear’s service.”
“An obliging fool is more dangerous than an enemy,” wrote classic fable writer Ivan Krylov in the opening lines of ‘The Hermit and the Bear’. According to the plot, the main character, a hermit (a man leading a solitary life), makes the acquaintance of a bear. One day, guarding his friend's sleep, the bear decides to do him a favor – to drive a fly away from his face. But, he doesn't calculate his strength and, as a result, smashes his friend’s head with a stone. It turns out that, instead of doing a good deed, he caused harm or, as they say, did a bear service.
This expression from the fable moved into everyday life and, soon, it began to be used when it was necessary to emphasize the “especially destructive” consequences of any help.
