ларчик просто открывался

• (А) ЛАРЧИК ПРОСТО ОТКРЫВАЛСЯ{{}}

[sent; past or pres; fixed WO]

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⇒ some seemingly difficult problem turned out to have a simple solution, some seemingly inexplicable phenomenon turned out to have a simple explanation etc:

- the explanation (the solution, the answer <to the puzzle>) was quite simple (after all);

- it was easy (wasn't hard) to figure out;

- the reason was (all) too obvious.

     ♦ "А ларчик просто открывался. Мы по душам говорили сегодня, и она сказала, что я её физически не удовлетворяю. Разрыв еще не оформлен, на днях, наверное" (Шолохов 2). "The answer to the puzzle was quite simple after all. We had a heart-to-heart talk today and she told me I don't satisfy her physically. The break is not yet official, in a few days probably" (2a).

     ♦ Не странно ли, что судят тех, кто получил "контрабанду", но даже в свидетели не приглашают тех, кто ее перевез через границу. Ларчик просто открывался: допроси хоть одного из этих иностранцев - он тут же доказал бы, что деньги разменял в Госбанке СССР, и этот зловещий фарс лопнул бы как мыльный пузырь (Ивинская 1). Was it not odd that those who had received these allegedly smuggled rubles were on trial, while the persons who had brought them across the frontier had not even been called as witnesses? The reason was all too obvious, if any of these foreigners had been questioned, he would immediately have been able to prove that he had obtained the rubles from the State Bank, and the whole wicked farce would have burst like a soap bubble (1a).

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← From Ivan Krylovs fable "A Little Box" ("Ларчик"), 1808.