But I Did It On Purpose, Why Are You Punishing Me?

I was substituting in the preschool today and we were on the playground with the 3 year old class. A little boy hit one of the girls who, of course, started to cry immediately. It seemed to be an accident but required more investigating since it involved being hit. So one of the teachers asks him, "did you hit her on purpose?" He does not hesitate to say, "yes." This is an open/shut case, he admitted to hitting her on purpose and he will now receive his sentence...time out and a talk about not hitting our friends. He walks over to us and is very upset (sad not mad). He starts to cry as if he is being wrongly punished. He then says, "But I did it on purpose!!" He can't seem to understand why he is having to sit in time out for doing something on purpose. Then it occurs to us...he's gotten his words mixed up! What he means to say is that it was an accident! What seemed to be an honest criminal was really a mixed up little kid!