Mirror punishment

For example, thieves have the same amount of money taken from them as they stole, one who strikes another is struck in the same way, one who willfully causes another person's death is killed, and so on.

Examples include the amputation of the hands of a thief, as permitted by Sharia law, and during the Middle Ages in Europe, or disabling the foot or leg of a runaway slave.

When the Halifax Gibbet was used as a method of execution, if the offender was to be executed for stealing an animal, a cord was fastened to the pin and tied to either the stolen animal or one of the same species, which was then driven off, withdrawing the pin and allowing the blade to drop.

[1] Other examples include the punishment of adulterous women by the insertion of irritating substances into their vaginas (in the past hot pokers were sometimes used).

Another method to accomplish "poetic justice" is to mirror the physical method of the crime, e.g., executing a murderer with his own weapon, burning arsonists alive, or in a more far-fetched example, boiling a counterfeiter alive (because bullion is boiled to be minted[citation needed]).