अश्रद्धया हुतं दत्तं तपस्तप्तं कृतं च यत्।असदित्युच्यते पार्थ न च तत्प्रेत्य नो इह॥
aśraddhayā hutaṃ dattaṃ tapas taptaṃ kṛtaṃ ca yatasad ity ucyate pārtha na ca tat pretya no iha
Word by word
The verse says
Whatever is offered, given, or endured without faith is called unreal, Arjuna. It is nothing here, and nothing afterwards.
In plain words
The chapter ends hard, and the word is asat - not real.
Not wrong. Not punished. Unreal. The act happened, and nothing of it exists.
The reason given is the one the chapter began with. Faith: what the person was actually leaning on while they did it. Take that out and there is nothing left but the motion.
Where you've felt this · in relationships
You sit with somebody for an hour while they tell you about a difficult time. You say the right things at the right moments. You also spend most of the hour somewhere else entirely, and you could not now repeat what they said. They were not helped and you were not present. An hour was spent and neither of you has anything from it.
Going deeper
Unreal, rather than wicked, is the verdict this chapter ends on, and it is both harsher and kinder than condemnation.
Asat is the opposite of the word just explained: not what is. An act without śraddhā behind it is not called a sin. It is called empty - a shape with nothing inside it, which is why it cannot register here or anywhere else.
That is harsher than being told off, because there is nothing to argue with and nobody to apologise to. It is also kinder, because nothing is being held against you. There is simply nothing there.
And it leaves you the only test this chapter really wants you to carry away. Not whether an act was correct, or generous, or hard. Whether anybody was actually at home while it happened.