Holding the baby/bag

To be left holding the bag means to be landed with the responsibility of resolving some unwanted situation or other and dates from the mid-1700s. Before this, from at least the 1600s, it was originally in the form of to give somebody or other the bag to hold as in a bag of poached game or stolen goods. The idea being to transfer the blame or guilt onto somebody else, usually an innocent bystander, and let them do the explaining as to how they acquired it. It is similar to the figurative expression to be left holding the baby, which dates from the 19th century and means much the same thing i.e. as the implied parent of the child and therefore responsible for its upbringing and welfare.