- English translation
Food from other people's homes won't keep you fed, and if it does, it won't sit well with you.
- Literal wording
The morsel of the houses does not nourish, and if it nourishes, it does not stay the night.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying warns that food taken at someone else's table rarely truly sustains a person. Even when it fills the stomach, it figuratively fails to 'stay the night': it does not sit well, because a sense of being beholden, whether spoken by the giver or only imagined by the receiver, spoils the benefit.
More broadly, the proverb recommends contentment with one's own portion over dependence on others' generosity. What a person earns or already has, however little, is presented as more wholesome and satisfying than abundance received as a favor that may later be held over them.
- When it is used
Use it when someone keeps relying on meals or help from others, or to explain declining an invitation. The point is that self-reliance and modest means bring more peace than benefits that leave a person feeling indebted.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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