- English translation
A bad neighbor keeps count of what comes into the house, never of what goes out.
- Literal wording
The bad neighbor counts what enters, but does not count what leaves.
- Meaning and lesson
Envy is pictured here as one-sided bookkeeping. In the spiteful neighbor's private ledger, every gain a family receives is entered and begrudged, while the money that same family pays out simply never appears.
The image exposes how a resentful observer's estimate of someone else's wealth is lopsided by choice. The proverb can answer envious talk by noting that the begrudger has tallied only half of the account.
- When it is used
A speaker may cite it when a neighbor or acquaintance begrudges a family's earnings or acquisitions, as a pointed reminder that the money spent from those earnings is left out of the envious reckoning.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: A bad neighbor keeps count of what comes into the house, never of what goes out.