- English translation
An easy meal accepted from others can leave a person owing them a difficult return.
- Literal wording
Whoever eats other people's bread cold will end up heating it over the embers for them.
- Meaning and lesson
The proverb warns that accepting sustenance or help without exertion may not remain effortless: an obligation can later place the recipient in the position of serving those who provided it.
Its contrast is between immediate comfort and later strain. What first comes readily may carry a return duty whose fulfillment calls for more work than the original benefit seemed to require.
- When it is used
It can be said when an apparently convenient reliance on others is expected to create a demanding obligation later, emphasizing that the recipient may ultimately have to work to discharge what was received.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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