«لِيلْتَكْ سَعِيدَهْ يَا ضِيفْ. قَالْ: عَلِيكْ وِعَلَى وْلَادَكْ»

A host wishes his guest a happy night and then adds his own comment: the night will be happy for the guest and the guest's children, because they are about to eat most of his supper. Both lines are the host's; the second is a dry grumble, not a sincere blessing.

More broadly, the saying marks the gap between a courteous wish and who actually benefits from the occasion. The person extending hospitality admits, with some irony, that the good time belongs to the visitors, who enjoy it at his expense.

Suited to a moment when someone providing food or hospitality remarks, half in jest, that the visitors are the real winners because they consume most of what he provides. The speaker is always the provider, never the guest; it is a wry aside about generosity's cost.