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Arabic · Arabic scriptProverb: Verified

«كُل بِيرْ قُصَادُهْ بَلَّاعَهْ»

Meanings

Each meaning is reviewed on its own.

Meaning: Verified
English translation

Every well has its drain right beside it.

Literal wording

Every well has a drain facing it.

Meaning and lesson

Whatever comes in has an exit waiting for it. The saying pictures water drawn from a well and spilled on the ground, where a nearby drain or channel, not a second well or reservoir, carries it away. The image is economic: each gain is matched by some outlet through which it is spent.

The tone is one of resigned realism about money. It observes that earnings rarely accumulate, because new needs, costs, or obligations arise alongside them, so a person's resources tend to flow out as quickly as they arrive.

When it is used

Say it when someone wonders why a new income or windfall has not left them better off, or to remind someone that every earning will soon meet a matching expense. It suits a resigned or wry remark about household budgets rather than a scolding.

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