Need help explaining "Cursed Thingy" & "Tiny Hands"

[explodotron]

Short back story first. I was playing a game of Munchkin recently with our newly purchased Unnatural Axe expansion, and one of the other players kicked down a door and got the curse Tiny Hands, which basically says that you can't carry any big items anymore. They claimed that since they didn't have any big items at the time, it didn't apply to them and they could ignore it. From my understanding, the card is not affecting the item, but rather the player (giving them hands to small to carry big items), so it did apply to them and they would be cursed with Tiny Hands until they could remove it by some means.

Now here is where I need some help...

A turn later, that same player used the curse Cursed Thingy against me. Now this was early in the game and I didn't have any items either in play or in my hand. So I explained that this curse couldn't apply to me since it says on the card that it applies to an item, to which I had none. They got mad because they felt since Tiny Hands applied to them when they didn't have and big items, that Cursed Thingy should apply to me when I didn't have any items, that I was cheating somehow, and quit playing the game because of it.

Can anyone let me know if my understanding of these 2 curses is correct. And if anyone has any suggestions as far as explaining the difference other than the way I tried to explain.

Thanks!