- English translation
God has spared the naked man the bother of soap and laundry.
- Literal wording
Our Lord has relieved the naked one of washing with soap.
- Meaning and lesson
A person with no clothes has nothing to launder, so soap and washing are simply not their concern. The saying describes someone who has no need of a particular thing, because not having it also releases them from every chore and expense attached to it.
It can also carry a wry, resigned philosophy: having little brings its own kind of ease, since possessions demand upkeep, worry, and cost. The speaker half-seriously ranks the calm of poverty above the troubles of plenty, without literally celebrating nakedness or poverty.
- When it is used
Use it, often with a wry smile, when someone's lack of a thing also spares them the trouble it brings, or when contrasting the ease of having little with the cares of owning much. Its appeal to God is idiomatic framing, not a theological claim.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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