«خَبَّازْ وِمِحْتِسِبْ»

The phrase sets a baker beside a muhtasib, the market official whose job was to oversee weights and prices. One natural reading takes the two titles as describing a single person, so that the seller and his would-be supervisor are the same, though the wording itself only names the two roles side by side.

In application, the saying is aimed at a dishonest trader who decides at whim how much goods he hands over and what he demands for them, not at an actual baker holding office. The complaint is about impunity: he meets no one able to curb his abuses, and buyers have no recourse.

Use it critically about a vendor who shortchanges customers on quantity or sets prices arbitrarily without consequence, not for unrelated situations. It conveys disapproval of unchecked cheating; said of a named person, it amounts to accusing them of defrauding customers.