Commentary for Sanhedrin 169:1

ורבי שמעון האמר כל מלאכה שאינה צריכה לגופה פטור עליה

but R. Simeon also maintains that any mode of work not required for itself is not punishable.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' E.g., the carrying out of a dead body on its bier from a private to a public domain. Now, this is not done because the dead body is wanted there, but because it is not wanted in the private domain. So here too, when a thorn is extracted and a wound made, even intentionally, no punishment is involved, because the purpose of the work is extraction, not wounding. ');">¹</span>

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