«شِرَايْةِ الْعَبْدْ وَلَا تْربِيِّتُهْ»

The saying, rooted in the historical buying and rearing of enslaved people, prefers getting something already formed and ready over bearing the long labor of shaping it from the start. Acquiring what is finished spares the effort, cost, and worry of nurturing it over years.

It stands opposite another saying that ranks the one who raised above the one who bought. Neither is the sole folk view or a universal rule; each suits its own kind of occasion, and a speaker reaches for whichever fits the case at hand.

Used when someone argues that obtaining a ready, capable person or thing is wiser than years of training or rearing one. Because its imagery reflects historical slavery, it calls for context rather than casual reuse. Speakers may set it against its counter-proverb.