«اِلْقُطَّهْ مَا تِهْرَبْشْ مِنْ بِيتِ الْفَرَحْ»

The picture is a household holding a wedding, with food everywhere; the 'joy' in the wording means this festive celebration, not general happiness. A cat lured by the scraps keeps coming back however often it is shooed off or struck, because what it gains matters more to it than the rough handling it receives.

Among people, the saying ridicules someone who clings to a profitable situation out of greed. Such a person swallows rebuffs, slights, and open hostility rather than walk away from the benefits that keep them coming back. The persistence is mocked as self-interest, not praised as loyalty or devotion.

Use it wryly about someone who keeps hanging around a person, workplace, or gathering for what they can get out of it, even though they are plainly unwelcome. It signals disapproval and, likening the person to a shooed-off cat, can offend if aimed at them directly.