get your fingers burned

get (one's) fingers burned

To suffer an unpleasant or ruinous consequence (especially the loss of money) for some action, often such that one becomes unwilling or reluctant to do it again. During the boom times, countless would-be investors put everything they owned in shady investment deals, and most of them ended up getting their fingers badly burned.
See also: burn, finger, get
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

get your fingers burned

or

burn your fingers

COMMON If you get your fingers burned or burn your fingers when you try do something, it goes wrong, and there are very unpleasant consequences for you. Unfortunately many people got their fingers burned when the Web phenomenon burst onto the scene. Foreign investors have a long history of burning their fingers when they try their hand at making Hollywood movies.
See also: burn, finger, get
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • burn (one's) fingers
  • burn one's fingers
  • burn your fingers
  • get (one's) fingers burned
  • get fingers burned
  • get your fingers burnt
  • have (one's) fingers burned
  • come to a bad end
  • come to a bad/sticky end
  • here we go again