Help with a possible Dutch idiom

[Skrej]

Hello,

I had a Dutch-speaking colleague email wrap up an email with the following expression. It doesn't mean anything in English, so I'm trying to figure out if he's trying to translate a Dutch idiom into English, or what.

What he said in English was "You just tortured me with a dead bird."

I can't figure out what he's trying say. Is there something like that in Dutch, and if so, what does the idiom mean?

Thanks in advance.

[Linguaphile]

Hello,

I had a Dutch-speaking colleague email wrap up an email with the following expression. It doesn't mean anything in English, so I'm trying to figure out if he's trying to translate a Dutch idiom into English, or what.

What he said in English was "You just tortured me with a dead bird."

I can't figure out what he's trying say. Is there something like that in Dutch, and if so, what does the idiom mean?

Thanks in advance.

To hang an albatross around one's neck means to give someone a heavy burden or hinder their ability to succeed. Could that have been what he was trying to say? It's from a poem and it does refer to a dead bird, which is used to torment someone by hanging it around his neck so that others know that he is to blame.
But as far I know "tortured with a dead bird" is not how it is said in Dutch (or English). Maybe your colleague mixed up the English idiom or was being funny, or maybe it has absolutely nothing to do with this meaning. It's just one possibility that comes to mind. If it fits the context, it could be what he meant. (Still doesn't explain why he said it that way, though.)

[Jannet]

There is an expression 'iemand blij maken met een dode mus' (make someone happy with a dead sparrow), meaning that one promises the other something good, but eventually it turnes out to be of no value. So in that case the receiver of the so-called good thing (the live sparrow), may feel he received a dead sparrow in stead of the promised live one. Which could explain his feeling of being tortured, he expected something nice, and now there is nothing special.