«اِلْفَقِيرْ رِيحْتُهْ وِحْشَهْ»

The proverb claims that poverty makes a person unwelcome. People pull away from the poor as if repelled by something unpleasant, and they treat them with dislike or contempt. The bad odor is a figure for that social aversion, not a physical description or a remark about hygiene.

The offensive smell is a figurative expression for the dislike and avoidance directed at a poor person. The saying makes that rejection seem as immediate as recoiling from an unpleasant odor. Its tone can convey the bitterness of being shunned, but the words themselves do not explicitly condemn those who turn away.

Say it when commenting on a poor person being avoided or treated as unwelcome because of poverty. Depending on the speaker, it can express bitterness about that rejection or repeat the disparaging attitude itself. Applied directly to someone who is poor, it is insulting.