“Get the short end of the stick”in other languages

Same idea, different pictures

English is usually explained by drawing lots: sticks of different lengths are held so they look the same, and whoever draws the short one loses. French has it in the bone, l'avoir dans l'os.

French la portion congrue was the fixed minimum income a parish priest received, set by law and famously too small. Polish comes out like Zabłocki on soap, wyjść jak Zabłocki na mydle: a popular story tells of a nobleman who hid his smuggled soap in a river to fool the customs men, and found it dissolved.