 Negative retributivism is often confusingly framed as the view that it is impermissible to punish a wrongdoer more than she deserves. (Hart 1968: 236–237; Duff 2001: 12; Lippke 2015: 58.) If desert provides a limit to punishment, then it must be deserved up to that limit. But there is a reason to give people what they deserve. Yet negative retributivism is offered as the view that desert provides no reason to punish. This contradiction can be avoided by reading the negative limit in terms of proportional forfeiture without referring to desert.