My parents didn't beat us for breaking dishes.
They beat us for breaking dishes in hopes of stifling the pain of the beatings they normally gave us for being miscreant pieces of shit. We'd put dinner plates in our pants when the parentals got wise to us wearing multiple pants before ass-whippings.
With plates tho, it makes an unrealistic *clink* type sound. We thought they were stupid and never counted on them telling us to drop trou. We did and out popped the dinner plate, smashing onto the floor. So we got beat for whatever the f**k we did AND breaking dishes.